Takaichi will brush off Albanese’s melon joke. She shouldn’t have to

August 10, 2026 — 7:45pm

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Beijing: Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi knows how to roll with the punches.

She is not just a hard-nosed political operative, but a self-made one. With no political pedigree of her own, she has ascended to the top of Japan’s famously dynastic and patriarchal system, which has typically reserved its elite positions for the sons of important men.

One can be fairly confident that in the three decades she has spent toiling in Japanese politics, she has brushed off all manner of innuendo that has typically plagued women in pursuit of power.

Whether he intended to or not, Anthony Albanese has forced her to brush off another one.

“She brought two. As you do,” the Australian prime minister said in a now surely regrettable podcast interview in July, accompanying the remark with an unfortunate cupping gesture.

Taylor demands PM apologise for comment about Japanese ‘melons’

He was referring to the........

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