The Japanese government has officially determined that environment minister Shinjiro Koizumi's recent use of the English word "sexy" in a reference to climate change is "difficult to accurately translate" into Japanese, avoiding issuing an official rendering of the young scion's tricky choice of vocabulary.

The government was forced to make sense of Koizumi's recent vow to make Japan's fight against climate change "sexy" after an opposition lawmaker requested an official interpretation of his remarks.

In a statement approved by the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday, the government said the word "sexy" and its nuances make a difficult translation due to its multiple meanings that "vary depending on the context." In what appeared to be a measure of last resort, it settled for merely offering a dictionary definition — citing a Longman version that, for example, says the word can be used to describe ideas as "attractive."