diff --git a/packages/block-library/src/navigation/map-menu-items-to-blocks.js b/packages/block-library/src/navigation/map-menu-items-to-blocks.js
index 4b21aaa9838819..3da4d7adca4211 100644
--- a/packages/block-library/src/navigation/map-menu-items-to-blocks.js
+++ b/packages/block-library/src/navigation/map-menu-items-to-blocks.js
@@ -44,6 +44,14 @@ export const menuItemToBlockAttributes = ( {
 	type: menuItemTypeField,
 	target,
 } ) => {
+	// For historical reasons, the `core/navigation-link` variation type is `tag`
+	// whereas WP Core expects `post_tag` as the `object` type.
+	// To avoid writing a block migration we perform a conversion here.
+	// See also inverse equivalent in `blockAttributesToMenuItem`.
+	if ( object && object === 'post_tag' ) {
+		object = 'tag';
+	}
+
 	return {
 		label: menuItemTitleField?.rendered || '',
 		...( object?.length && {
diff --git a/packages/edit-navigation/src/store/test/resolvers.js b/packages/edit-navigation/src/store/test/resolvers.js
index fdbe8eddc97e5d..eced25a0396f93 100644
--- a/packages/edit-navigation/src/store/test/resolvers.js
+++ b/packages/edit-navigation/src/store/test/resolvers.js
@@ -160,7 +160,6 @@ describe( 'getNavigationPostForMenu', () => {
 								description: 'description',
 								title: 'link title',
 								kind: 'custom',
-								type: 'custom',
 							},
 							clientId: 'client-id-0',
 							innerBlocks: [],
@@ -172,7 +171,6 @@ describe( 'getNavigationPostForMenu', () => {
 								url: 'http://wp.org',
 								opensInNewTab: true,
 								kind: 'custom',
-								type: 'custom',
 							},
 							clientId: 'client-id-1',
 							innerBlocks: [],
diff --git a/packages/edit-navigation/src/store/test/utils.js b/packages/edit-navigation/src/store/test/utils.js
index 180b2b45f20f35..f03f096a983e27 100644
--- a/packages/edit-navigation/src/store/test/utils.js
+++ b/packages/edit-navigation/src/store/test/utils.js
@@ -851,7 +851,7 @@ describe( 'Mapping block attributes and menu item fields', () => {
 			expect( actual ).toEqual(
 				expect.objectContaining( {
 					label: '',
-					type: 'custom',
+					url: '',
 					kind: 'custom',
 				} )
 			);
diff --git a/packages/edit-navigation/src/store/utils.js b/packages/edit-navigation/src/store/utils.js
index 3d26c111ca4a29..ffa71c376e29c9 100644
--- a/packages/edit-navigation/src/store/utils.js
+++ b/packages/edit-navigation/src/store/utils.js
@@ -282,7 +282,9 @@ export const menuItemToBlockAttributes = ( {
 
 	return {
 		label: menuItemTitleField?.rendered || '',
-		type: object || 'custom',
+		...( object?.length && {
+			type: object,
+		} ),
 		kind: menuItemTypeField?.replace( '_', '-' ) || 'custom',
 		url: url || '',
 		...( xfn?.length &&