The incident occurred during a joint press statement following the bilateral summit between the two leaders at Hyderabad House in New Delhi on July 2. After Prime Minister Modi delivered his remarks in Hindi and the official interpretation was relayed to her, Takaichi told reporters, "He just called me his beautiful sister, and we have promised to continue our relationship as brother and sister."
However, the Japanese government clarified that Prime Minister Modi had actually referred to her as "my sister, Prime Minister Takaichi." An official English transcript released by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs translated the remark as "my younger sister," and neither version contained any reference to the word "beautiful."
According to Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Masanao Ozaki, who attended the summit, the brother-sister reference had been planned in advance. Takaichi had requested that Prime Minister Modi address her as "sister" as a tribute to her predecessor, Shinzo Abe, who had previously referred to Modi as his "brother."
The Japanese government attributed the misunderstanding to a technical error during the relay interpretation process. The simultaneous interpretation was conducted in two stages, with Prime Minister Modi's Hindi remarks first translated into English and then from English into Japanese for Takaichi.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara stated on July 7 that an interpreter contracted by the Japanese government made the incorrect translation. He explained that the interpreter mistakenly rendered the phrase as "beautiful sister," leading Takaichi to repeat the expression during her own remarks at the joint press conference.
A government official acknowledged the challenges involved in relay interpretation, stating that simultaneous interpretation conducted through multiple languages is highly complex and describing the incident as a simple mistranslation.
Despite the public attention generated by the episode, Japanese officials confirmed that the matter has not affected diplomatic relations. A senior Foreign Ministry official stated that the Indian side had not raised any concerns regarding the mistranslation, indicating that the incident has not developed into a diplomatic issue. The clarification underscores the importance of accuracy in multilingual diplomatic communication, where even a minor interpretation error can quickly attract international attention.
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