Perspectives

Lost in translation: Is Hatoyama as loopy as an alien?

After an April article in the Washington Post labeled Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama "loopy," a Japanese university professor wrote to the author, Al Kamen, inquiring about the meaning of the word, saying the Japanese mass media had translated it into Japanese as meaning "stupid," or "crazy."

Later in his column, Kamen provided an explanation. He wrote that the term "essentially refers to someone oddly detached from reality."

The essence here is "oddness." The word does not simply mean "stupid" at the intellectual level. As such, Hatoyama's initial interpretation of the word as "guchoku" (stupidly or foolishly honest) was mistaken.

In his column, Kamen gave the example of a South Carolina governor who went on television over a love affair and said that "while he had done something wrong, he would not resign." Though questions might be raised about whether or not this was the right move, it was not loopy. But afterwards, the governor reportedly called his estranged wife and asked her about the news conference: "How did I do?" This, says Kamen, was loopy.

In Japanese, such people are described using the term "uchujin" (alien). From the time before he became prime minister, Hatoyama was described as an "uchujin," even leading to the marketing of products bearing the tag. Might it be the case that information the United States had on Hatoyama mentioned the references to him as "an alien," creating the impression among high-ranking U.S. government officials that he was a "loopy person"?

If the phrase in Kamen's column had been "accurately" translated into Japanese to say some high-ranking U.S. government officials held the opinion that Hatoyama was increasingly becoming like an "alien" (uchujin), the comment would not have been particularly surprising. Since it was translated as "foolish," however, it became a question of Hatoyama's qualifications as prime minister, and prompted Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano to remark that referring to the leader of a country in such a way was "somewhat impolite." The controversial issue was even brought up at a party leaders debate in the Diet.

In the original article, Kamen was actually focusing on Chinese President Hu Jintao, as indicated by the headline: "Among leaders at summit, Hu's first." The article listed the "winners" who had private talks with U.S. President Barack Obama at a nuclear security summit, and placed Hu, who spoke with Obama for 90 minutes, at the top of the list. Following were the king of Jordan, the prime minister of Malaysia, the President of Ukraine, and president of Armenia. Egypt's foreign minister, who secured a private talk though he was not the leader of his country, was also included in the group of "winners."

Hatoyama, on the other hand, was placed at the head of the losers group, being described as "hapless and (in the opinion of some Obama administration officials) increasingly loopy." Kamen did not appear to have as much interest in Hatoyama as to label him "foolish." But since the Japanese media only picked up on the reference to Hatoyama, it was taken as criticism regarding his qualifications as leader. The commotion over the use of the word "loopy" may just stem from an incorrect translation. (By Hidetoshi Kaneko, Expert Senior Writer)

Click here for the original Japanese story