By Tamiyuki Kihara and John Geddie

TOKYO (Reuters) -An off-the-cuff remark by new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi that triggered Japan’s biggest bust-up in years with powerful neighbour China was not meant to signal a new hardline stance.

But after openly stating how Japan might react to a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan, she will struggle to defuse a dispute that could hammer the economy, two government officials with knowledge of the matter said.

China has shown its displeasure with steps designed to inflict pain on the world’s fourth largest economy after Takaichi’s response, which officials said was unscripted, to an opposition lawmaker’s query in her first parliamentary grilling.

These range from a boycott on travel to a halt on imports of its seafood and cancellations of meet

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