U.S. President Donald Trump is a man of controversy and nobody would be surprised if he caused another one.

But during a recent interview with The New York Times, Trump kicked off an unexpected debate about Japan's first lady: Can Akie Abe, the wife of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, speak English? And if she can, how fluent is she?

Trump asserted that she can't speak English at all, and said she didn't speak a word of it when he sat next to her during dinner with the Group of 20 leaders and their spouses in Hamburg, Germany, earlier this month.