Japan Blames X Translation for Misnamed Leaders
Japan's trade minister says X's automatic translation feature misidentified Bangladeshi and other leaders in his posts.
Updated on Nov. 6, 2026 in International Trade
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Japanese trade minister Ryosei Akazawa said X's automatic translation feature wrongly named Sheikh Hasina instead of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Tarique Rahman in an English version of his post. He said the feature also misnamed officials in posts about meetings with Kuwait's oil minister and US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, and that he experienced the error three times.
Why it matters
The errors involved official diplomatic communications, where misidentifying a head of government or minister can create confusion about who was actually met. The episode highlights the risks of relying on automatic translation for public government statements.
Akazawa's original Japanese post dated October 28 correctly identified Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, while the English translation named former premier Sheikh Hasina, who has lived in exile in India since a 2024 mass uprising. X has not commented on the cause of the error.
The players
Ryosei Akazawa
Japan's trade minister, who publicly raised the translation errors in his social media posts.
X
The social media platform whose automatic translation feature produced the mistranslated posts; it did not immediately respond to comment requests.
Sheikh Hasina
Bangladesh's former prime minister, who was wrongly named in the translated post and has lived in exile in India since 2024.
Tarique Rahman
Bangladesh's current prime minister, whom Akazawa actually met according to his original Japanese post.
The details
Akazawa's post with photos of his meeting with Rahman was translated by X's automatic feature to name Hasina. Separate translated posts about a meeting with Kuwait's oil minister Tareq Al-Roumi named Qatar's energy minister, and a post about Howard Lutnick stated an incorrect name.
Timeline
2024: A mass uprising ousted Sheikh Hasina, who went into exile in India.
October 28, 2026: Akazawa posted in Japanese about meeting Prime Minister Tarique Rahman.
Friday, November 6, 2026: Akazawa publicly blamed X's translation feature for the errors.
Market Landscape
The episode underscores how governments increasingly rely on platform-provided machine translation to reach multilingual audiences in international diplomacy. It raises questions about whether platforms' automated tools are adequate for official diplomatic communications.
Readers relying on machine-translated government statements should verify names and titles against original-language sources. Official announcements in translation may contain errors that change who is being referenced.
The takeaway
Machine translation can quietly alter the meaning of official statements. Checking the original-language text is the most reliable way to confirm who is being named.
Further reading
For broader context on diplomatic and trade communications, explore International Trade coverage.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Arab News.
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