Japan formally lodged a complaint with China after a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson addressed Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi by her name alone without her official title. This move is expected to further deteriorate bilateral ties, which are already strained.

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Toshihiro Kitamura, press secretary of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He formally lodged a complaint with China on the 7th after Beijing referred to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi by her name alone. / Global Times (Huanqiu Shibao)

According to Beijing diplomatic sources familiar with bilateral relations on the 8th, Toshihiro Kitamura, press secretary of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, made the statement at a regular press briefing the previous day, saying, "Even with differences in positions, showing due respect to a nation's leader is a matter of course under international protocol." He added that the Japanese government had conveyed this stance to the Chinese side.

Prior to this, on the 30th of last month, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun referred to Prime Minister Takaichi during a regular press briefing solely by her name, "Sanae Takaichi," without using her official title such as "Prime Minister." Given that the Chinese Foreign Ministry had previously used titles like "Japanese Prime Minister" or "Prime Minister Takaichi," speculation naturally arose that dropping the honorific title was intentional.

This interpretation gained even more weight considering that China-Japan relations had deteriorated after Prime Minister Takaichi hinted at "intervention in the event of a Taiwan contingency" during a parliamentary session on November 6 last year. It can be fully interpreted as Beijing's indirect way of signaling its displeasure toward Tokyo. In any case, bilateral ties appear unlikely to break out of their seemingly irreparable rut for the time being following this clash.

                                                                                                           Hong Soon-do