Japan minister blames X translation tool for diplomatic near-miss over Bangladesh PM’s name, AFP reports

Japan’s Trade Minister Ryosei Akazawa has blamed Elon Musk’s social media platform X for a translation error that nearly caused a diplomatic embarrassment by incorrectly identifying Bangladesh’s prime minister in an English translation of his post, AFP reports.

Akazawa told reporters on Friday that he knew the identity of Bangladesh’s current prime minister, Tarique Rahman, after X’s automatic translation feature mistakenly replaced his name with that of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

In a Japanese-language post on October 28, Akazawa shared photographs from his meeting with visiting Prime Minister Tarique Rahman. However, the platform’s English translation incorrectly stated that he had met Sheikh Hasina, who has been living in exile in India since her ouster following the 2024 mass uprising.

“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 their prime minister is,” Akazawa said.

The Japanese minister said the translation feature had made similar mistakes on two other occasions.

He said a post about his online meeting with Kuwait’s Oil Minister Tareq Al-Roumi on Thursday was translated as a meeting with Qatar’s energy minister.

Another translated post about his meeting with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick also incorrectly identified the official.

“I experienced this three times,” Akazawa said, urging X to fix its automatic translation tool.

X did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.