Lost in translation? Japan minister blames X for diplomatic near-miss

TOKYO – A Japanese minister blamed Elon Musk’s X social media platform on Nov 6 for almost plunging him into diplomatic hot water, after its automatic translation feature implied he did not know the names of world leaders he was meeting.Trade minister Ryosei Akazawa assured reporters that he knew the identity of the current Prime Minister of Bangladesh after a post with photos of the two included the name of an ousted Bangladeshi premier in its translated version.“This is actually a serious matter. It is possible that... the Bangladeshi public might be left with the impression that Japan’s Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry does not even know who our (Bangladeshi) prime minister is,” Akazawa told journalists.His original Japanese-language post on X on Oct 28, accompanied by photos, stated that he met visiting Bangladeshi Prime Minister Tarique Rahman.But the platform’s machine-translation tool incorrectly changed the English version to make Akazawa seem to declare that he met with Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh’s former premier who has lived in exile in India since a mass uprising in 2024.Making matters worse, it was not the first time Akazawa had fallen foul of a translation snafu on the platform.He said a similar mistake occurred after he posted about his Thursday online meeting with Kuwait’s oil minister Tareq Al-Roumi – with the automatic translation feature saying he held talks with Qatar’s energy minister.Akazawa added that his translated post on a meeting with US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick had also stated an incorrect name.“I experienced this three times,” he said, appealing to X to fix the translation tool.X did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AFP. AFP