Japan’s Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Ryosei Akazawa has explained how an automatic translation error on social media platform X replaced the name of Bangladesh’s current Prime Minister Tarique Rahman with that of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina. Speaking to reporters in Tokyo on Friday, November 6, Akazawa said he knew who Bangladesh’s current leader was, but the platform’s automatic English translation changed the name in his Japanese-language post, creating an embarrassing misunderstanding.

According to German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, which cited French news agency AFP, Akazawa said the incident had placed him in an uncomfortable diplomatic position. The translated post could have given readers the impression that he did not know the identity of the world leader he had met.

Akazawa said the issue was serious because people in Bangladesh might conclude that Japan’s minister responsible for economy, trade and industry did not even know who their prime minister was. He stressed that the confusion had resulted from X’s automatic translation feature rather than a lack of knowledge about Tarique Rahman.

The confusion began on October 28, when Akazawa published a post in Japanese about his meeting with Tarique Rahman. The post included a photograph from the meeting. However, when X automatically translated the text into English, it displayed Sheikh Hasina’s name instead of Tarique Rahman’s.

As a result, English-speaking users could have understood the post to mean that Akazawa had met Hasina, Bangladesh’s former prime minister who was removed from power. The incorrect translation therefore changed the identity of the person mentioned in the minister’s account of the meeting.

Akazawa said this was not an isolated incident. He had faced similar translation problems on two other occasions, involving posts about meetings with foreign government officials.

On Thursday, November 5, he posted about an online meeting with Kuwait’s Oil Minister Tariq Al-Roumi. X’s automatic translation again produced an incorrect name, making the post appear to refer to a meeting with Qatar’s energy minister instead of Kuwait’s oil minister.

A similar name-related error also appeared in another post concerning Akazawa’s meeting with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. The repeated mistakes have raised questions about the reliability of the platform’s automatic translation system, particularly when it handles the names and official titles of senior government figures.

Akazawa said he wanted to draw the platform’s attention to the technical problem and called for the translation errors to be corrected. He warned that such mistakes could do more than cause personal embarrassment. They could also create confusion about the identities of important officials and the nature of diplomatic communications.

The incidents highlight the risks of relying on automated translation for sensitive political and diplomatic messages. A small error in a person’s name can change the meaning of an official statement and potentially cause misunderstanding between countries.