Japanese Commerce Minister Ryosei Akazawa met with Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, who visited Japan on an official trip late last month. On November 28, he shared a post in Japanese on his X (formerly Twitter) account along with a photograph taken with Prime Minister Tarique Rahman.
However, X's automatic translation replaced Tarique Rahman's name with that of former autocratic Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. This has left Ryosei Akazawa feeling embarrassed.
Speaking to journalists today, Friday (November 6), he expressed concern that the people of Bangladesh might think he does not know the name of Bangladesh's Prime Minister. He clarified that he had correctly mentioned Prime Minister Tarique Rahman in his original post, but the auto-translated version on X displayed Sheikh Hasina's name instead.
Following the mass uprising on August 5, 2024, Sheikh Hasina fled to India, after which an interim government led by Dr. Muhammad Yunus took power. Later, Tarique Rahman became Prime Minister following the National Parliamentary Election held in February of this year.
Describing X's error as extremely serious, the Japanese minister told reporters, "This is actually a very serious matter... The people of Bangladesh might think that Japan's Commerce Minister does not even know who their (Bangladesh's) Prime Minister is."
Read nextIran Grants Special Transit Exemptions to India, China, Iraq, and Qatar in the Strait of HormuzHowever, Ryosei Akazawa noted that this was not the first time he faced such an embarrassing situation. He mentioned that last Thursday, he posted photos on X from a meeting with Kuwaiti Oil Minister Tareq Al-Roumi, but X's automatic translation showed that the Japanese minister had met with Qatar's oil minister.
Ryosei Akazawa added that X's translation had even misstated the name of the US Commerce Secretary in the past.
"This is the third time I have had such an experience. I request X to fix the issue with their translation tool," he said.
News agency AFP reached out to X, owned by American billionaire Elon Musk, regarding the matter, but they offered no comment.
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Reported by International Desk • Edited by the Daily Best News desk. Send corrections to [email protected].
