Disney's Alice offended all of Japan in a single tweet

The Walt Disney company did a poor job of bringing joy to people in Japan the other day, as it wished them congratulations on the worst possible day.

The company’s Japanese Twitter account posted the following tweet, in which the Japanese text reads: "congratulations on a trifling [or not a special] day".

However, the tweet was sent on the anniversary of the Nagasaki nuclear bombing, as Japan commemorated its dead.

The line "a very merry unbirthday" comes, of course, from Disney’s animated classic Alice in Wonderland - from the Mad Hatter’s tea party, where it’s a celebration of every other day in the year that isn’t one’s birthday.

The combination of poor translation and incredible bad timing has led many in Japan to conclude the tweet was sent on purpose by someone at the American corporate empire.

The company deleted the tweet shortly after the controversy began, posting an apology instead.

【お詫び】8月9日のディズニーTwitterアカウントからのツイートについて、皆様にご不快な思いをさせてしまう不適切な表現がありましたことを深くお詫び申し上げます。今後につきましては細心の注意を払ってアカウント運営を行ってまいります。

— ディズニー公式 (@disneyjp) August 9, 2015

"For tweets from Disney Twitter account of August 9, [we] deeply apologize that there was inappropriate expression that [might be] uncomfortable to everyone. And we will operate the account extreme caution in the future," it said in Japanese.

There has not been a tweet from the account since.

As gaming and Japanese culture site Kotaku notes, it’s not the first time Disney Japan has made such a colossal error. It previously tweeted asking if its followers were enjoying their summer holidays on the anniversary of the nation’s surrender in WWII.

HT: breakingnews.ie