{"id":72337,"date":"2026-08-11T16:44:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T16:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/72337\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T16:44:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T16:44:07","slug":"australian-prime-minister-refuses-to-apologize-for-melon-comment-to-takaichi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/72337\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian prime minister refuses to apologize for melon comment to Takaichi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian<\/a> Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has rejected repeated calls to apologize to Japanese<\/a> Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi <\/a>over offensive and disrespectful comments he made on a comedy podcast in early July regarding an exchange at the leaders\u2019 recent meeting.<\/p>\n

Albanese appeared to gesture in front of his chest while discussing a gift of Japanese melons that Takaichi had given him. \u201c[Takaichi] brought two, as you do,\u201d Albanese added, in discussion with Bush Deep\u00a0podcast host Nikki Osborne<\/p>\n

The comments have drawn backlash in Australia and Japan, with opposition leader Angus Taylor calling on Albanese to apologize for what he described as an \u201cinsulting\u201d joke.<\/p>\n

Albanese skirted around an apology, saying, \u201cI reject the assertion in the question,\u201d when asked in Parliament on Tuesday whether he would apologize for his \u201cdisrespectful behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liberal member of Parliament Mary Aldred also condemned the remarks, describing them as \u201cfoul-mouthed, classless\u201d and \u201cdisrespectful behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n

The controversy has also drawn criticism from Japan. Shingo Yamagami, Australia\u2019s former ambassador to Japan, wrote an op-ed in the Australian titled<\/a> \u201cSexist melon joke was not only ungracious, it betrayed the close bond of our two nations,\u201d in which he criticized what he called Albanese\u2019s \u201ccrude jokes.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a subsequent social media post<\/a>, Yamagami said the issue was \u201cnot a political issue, but a matter of courtesy, diplomatic manners, and respect for the other party.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter which country it is, one would not mock something that a friend has carefully prepared and kindly offered,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to ask Prime Minister Albanese to think about the efforts of Japanese melon farmers and to continue eating sweet and juicy Japanese melons throughout his term,\u201d Yamagami said.<\/p>\n

Premium Japanese melons are considered luxury items and can cost nearly $200, according to Yamagami.<\/p>\n

EL SAYED HAILS \u2018INSPIRING\u2019 PHONE CALL WITH OBAMA, HOPES FORMER PRESIDENT HITS CAMPAIGN TRAIL<\/a><\/p>\n

Albanese\u2019s allies have rejected accusations that the comments were intended as an insult. Foreign Minister Penny Wong defended the prime minister, saying Albanese had been clear that he did not intend for his remarks to be interpreted in the way opposition lawmakers have characterized them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prime minister has been clear that he did not mean for those comments to be interpreted in the way they have been by those opposite,\u201d Wong said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has rejected repeated calls to apologize to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[923,831,8,17,358],"class_list":["post-72337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-australia","tag-diplomacy","tag-japan","tag-japanese","tag-sanae-takaichi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}