Something was definitely lost in translation when Shinzo Abe spoke in New York on Thursday. First, Japan's self-described reformist prime minister raised the specter of Gordon Gekko, the greed-is-good villain of Oliver Stone's 1987 film "Wall Street." Speaking at the New York Stock Exchange no less, a place that's been trying to weed out insider traders since the 1980s, Abe declared without irony: "Today, I have come to tell you that Japan will once again be a country where there is money to be made, and that just as Gordon Gekko made a comeback in the financial world . . . so too can we now say that Japan is back."

Abe's pained simile prompted a rapid, rather awkward clarification from Japan's government: The Prime Minister, of course, was referring not to the original "Wall Street" but to Stone's 2010 sequel subtitled "Money Never Sleeps," in which Gekko emerges from prison driven by revenge and lust to rehabilitate his reputation.

The second awkward moment came when Abe used the heavy metal band Metallica as a plot device to talk up Japan's prospects and excitement over the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. "Japan is once again in the midst of great elation as we prepare for the Games seven years from now," Abe said. "It is almost as if Metallica's 'Enter Sandman' is resounding throughout Yankee Stadium — you know how this is going to end."