Tokyo denied Tuesday that a protest from China was behind a decision to drop the Taiwanese president's name from the online version of a message sent by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last week in response to a devastating earthquake.

Abe's message of condolence and support was addressed to President Tsai Ing-wen when it was released to the media on Thursday, but her name was not present in the version subsequently uploaded to the Japanese Foreign Ministry's website.

"It's true that there was a protest by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, but ... it's not true that we altered (the message) in response to the Chinese protest," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference when asked about the omission.