An adviser to former Japanese leader Shinzo Abe says Anthony Albanese should have used his own melon before he participated in a crude joke about the fruit given to him by Japan’s first woman Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

Tomohiko Taniguchi, who served as an adviser to Shinzo Abe, who mentored Ms Takaichi, said the Australian Prime Minister’s comments on a podcast last month were “unsophisticated” and that the comments risked offending the Japanese people.

“I should be blunt in saying that he should have used his own melon — brain. Well, that’s too unsophisticated for anyone to seriously discuss,” he said.

The serve comes as Japan’s former ambassador to Australia warned the comments would have damaged Mr Albanese’s standing in Japan, particularly given the context of sexist remarks made about Ms Takaichi’s body and gender made by her political opponents.

Mr Albanese’s “insulting joke of likening the carefully chosen gift of two melons to a woman’s chest” also betrayed his “ignorance about what this gift means,” Shingo Yamagami wrote in The Australian.

On the Bush Deep podcast last month, Mr Albanese named the two melons given by Ms Takaichi on a visit to Canberra earlier this year as the “most crap gift” he’d ever received, saying he initially viewed the customary gift as “pretty strange, but ended up being quite good”.

“Got a couple of melons … she brought two, as you do,” the Prime Minister said, as he gestured with rounded hands either side of his chest.

Ms Takaichi’s choice of gift was deliberate as Australia this year updated biosecurity rules to allow fresh melons to be imported from Japan. The highly prized luxury item is considered the “King of Fruits” and sells for $US308 a pair at one Japanese retailer.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor called for Mr Albanese to personally apologise to Ms Takaichi on Monday, saying the comments were “beneath the office of prime minister”.

“They were insulting, and the Prime Minister should make a personal apology,” Mr Taylor said. “The hypocrisy of Labor and the Prime Minister on this topic knows no bounds.”

The PM has denied the comment was sexual innuendo, with spokeswoman saying “the basis of the story is incorrect”.

Mr Taniguchi said a world leader such as Mr Albanese should “keep a close watch on what you say”.

“Politicians are like sometimes comedians or sometimes stage performers, applause, smile, laugh would be something that they are always eager to have, that’s part of their habit, regardless of their nationality, there are many such politicians in any country, Japan’s no exception.

“So as a top leader of a nation, you should keep close watch on what you say, as general advice, and that would apply to everyone.”

To make it to market in Japan, Crown producers have to earn the Crown Melon Seal of Approval.

“They are extremely expensive and it takes a lot of care from the growers, farmers and the value has become doubly important because as has been reported, only in January this year, the ban that has been put on Japanese melons from Australia has been lifted,” Mr Taniguchi said.

Mr Taniguchi said that the episode had not registered in Japan either in the mainstream media or on social media.

He said this was partly because of the language barrier and partly because the Japanese Prime Minister’s office would not make a deal out of it but simply laugh it off if asked.

“In reality, very little harm has been done, but if many people in Japan came to know that Prime Minister Albanese said something like that, Prime Minister Albanese would receive a lot of disrespect from the Japanese people, and it’s not going to do good to the overall bilateral relationship.

“So far, nothing of that sort has happened, and in six months’ time, people will have forgotten everything here.”

“Takaichi was extremely glad about it as a politician because farmers in many countries are the backbone of any politics, so Takaichi wanted to highlight how important it is for Japan to start being able to sell the product that’s been the epitome of care and elaborate work, given by the Japanese workers and farmers.

“So it was very much symbolically important, and it’s been customary for the Japanese prime minister, whoever that may be, to bring some agricultural products whenever they make travels abroad because the agricultural industry is losing its share in the Japanese economy and Japanese young people are not interested in getting engaged in agriculture anymore.

“So those are the notions with which Takaichi, I could imagine, brought one pair of melons to Australia.”

Speaking on Seven’s Sunrise, Social Services Minister Tanya Pliberse defended Mr Albanese, saying Mr Yamagami was “wrong” to say the Prime Minister had damaged Australia’s relationship with Japan.

“I think he is 100 per cent wrong, and we have an excellent relationship with Japan … I think the former ambassador is wrong in his interpretation,” she said.

“I think people watching it for themselves can make their own minds up.”

Transport Minister Catherine King joined the PM’s defence.

“(The) PM appeared on a satirical podcast. The podcaster made some comments, and there are people trying to blow that up. I’ve got zero interest in that, frankly, and zero interest in Angus Taylor’s attempt to attempt to conflate that,” she said.

“I haven’t seen the podcast, but it’s a satirical podcast.”

In a follow-up episode of the Bush Deep podcast, Nikki Osborne revealed a gift Mr Albanese appeared to appreciate instantly, Canadian whisky given to him by his Canadian counterpart.

It was the alcoholic drink he was sipping throughout his infamous podcast appearance, Osborne revealed.

“He was acting like it was top-shelf — the bee’s knees,” she said.

Bryce Wakefield, CEO of the Canberra-based Australian Institute of International Affairs, is fluent in Japanese and spent several years in Japan in academia specialising in Japanese politics, said the joke was ill-conceived but not enough to cause a diplomatic incident.

“Albanese’s comments were poorly considered, but the Australia–Japan relationship under his government has moved well beyond warm rhetoric and strategic intent into a much denser, more practical partnership across defence, security and regional diplomacy,” Dr Wakefield said.

“An off-colour joke on a podcast is not going to derail a relationship of that depth. Whatever his critics might wish, this has gained no real traction in Japan and is unlikely to resonate beyond a narrow Australian audience already predisposed to dislike the Prime Minister.”

On the podcast Mr Albanese also said he would shag Kylie Minogue and talked about having to schedule sex with his new wife Jodie Haydon after watching the Rabbitohs play rugby league.

Ms Takaichi, a protege of former prime minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated in 2022, made history when she overcame Japan’s male-dominated political culture to become the country’s first woman prime minister last October.