Taiwan envoy Lee Yi-yang boycotts Nagasaki atomic bomb memorial over seating

Taiwan’s top representative in Japan, Lee Yi-yang, boycotted the 9 August 2026 memorial ceremony in Nagasaki marking the 81st anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the city. Lee said the seating arrangement for his delegation denied Taiwan’s status as a nation and disregarded its sovereignty. The Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Tokyo described the move as an insult to Taipei and accused Nagasaki officials of acting as "a pawn of China’s insistence that Taiwan is not a state."

Nagasaki officials said the seats assigned to Taiwanese officials were located near other envoys and were not clearly distinguished as nondiplomatic guests. The ceremony, held at the Peace Park in Nagasaki, was attended by representatives from 98 countries and three international organisations, including the United Nations, the European Union and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Lee sent a lower-ranked official from Fukuoka in his place.

The dispute follows a policy change in Nagasaki after the 2024 ceremony was boycotted by the U.S. ambassador and five other Group of Seven envoys over the exclusion of Israel. Nagasaki subsequently revised its invitation policy to include countries, regions and organisations with diplomatic missions in Japan or at the United Nations, though Taiwan does not fit either category. Nagasaki officials said Taiwan’s representatives were accommodated at their request last year.

What the coverage left out

None of the right-rated or centre-rated digests below mention the 2024 boycott by the U.S. ambassador and five other Group of Seven envoys, which prompted Nagasaki to revise its invitation policy. The left-rated reports, including the full Associated Press and Washington Top News articles, carried this detail.