According to a report by the Japan News Agency, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Akai acknowledged during a meeting of the House of Representatives Budget Committee on the 27th that there was a translation error in her diplomatic statement, in which she referred to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a 'beautiful sister'. She said she was 'very disappointed' by this mistake.
On the 27th, Governor Goh responded by saying, “It is regrettable that Prime Minister Modi did not use the word ‘beautiful sister’, but ‘sister’. I was very disappointed to learn that this was a mistake in Hindi translation.”
In early July, Gao visited India. At a press conference, she said to Modi, "Just now, you called me 'beautiful sister'."
However, according to the speech transcript released by the Indian government, Modi said, "Your Excellency, and my sister, Prime Minister Gao," and did not use any words related to "beautiful."
After that, the Japanese government clarified that this was a "misinterpretation" caused by the simultaneous interpretation commissioned by Japan. An official from the Japanese Prime Minister's office stated that it might have been due to a two-step translation process, first from Hindi into English, and then from English back into Japanese.
