Microsoft 365 Outage & Disability News in Japan Getting ‘Lost in Translation’

When Japanese news outlets reported the problems with software like Microsoft Teams, they used the term “障害”, and since the same term is often used in a news story about disability issues, it was difficult to find news about people with disabilities in Japan, as any Google search with the term “障害” only returned results to do with the Microsoft 365 outage. Coincidentally “障害” – or ‘shogai’ can be translated as ‘disability’, ‘impairment’, as well as more troublingly, ‘hindrance’, ‘obstacle’ and ‘failure.’ A person with disabilities in Japan could be translated literally as a ‘failed’ or ‘obstacle’ person’.