Taiwan Envoy Skips Nagasaki Memorial Over Seating Snub

Taiwan's top representative in Japan has boycotted the annual memorial ceremony in Nagasaki marking the 81st anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing, accusing local officials of siding with China and disrespecting Taipei.

Lee Yi-yang, who heads the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Tokyo, said he and two deputies stayed away from Sunday's event at the Peace Park. In a social media post, Lee claimed the seating plan "deliberately denied Taiwan's status as a nation" and disregarded its sovereignty and dignity.

His office issued a statement describing Nagasaki's actions as those of "a pawn of China's insistence that Taiwan is not a state." Lee said he sent a lower-ranked official from Fukuoka instead.

Nagasaki officials, however, said the seats for Taiwanese representatives were placed near other envoys and were not clearly marked as non-diplomatic guests. The city has faced similar controversy before; in 2024, several G7 ambassadors boycotted the ceremony over Israel's exclusion.

This year, representatives from 98 countries and three international organizations attended. Taiwan does not fit the city's current invitation criteria, which targets entities with diplomatic missions in Japan or at the United Nations, but Nagasaki had accommodated Taipei's representatives at their request last year.

Lee attended the Hiroshima memorial on August 6, where he said he was treated equally with other foreign envoys. He noted that he had accepted a similar seating arrangement in Nagasaki last year without complaint to prioritize friendship, but chose to protest this time.

Japan and China normalized ties in 1972, which ended Tokyo's official diplomatic relations with Taipei. Japan and Taiwan maintain close economic links through nongovernmental channels.