In a new blog designed to support women, Japan's prime minister Shinzo Abe has inadvertently ordered readers to "die!".

The header of the blog shows his smiling face next to the word 'shine', which in English of course means to sparkle or perform well, but in Japanese can be mean to "die" (in fact there are famous examples of this usage in anime).

The post goes on to use the Japanese word for 'shine', 'kagayaku', so the sudden jump to English at its outset will strike many readers as 'Die!' rather than the very antithetical intended meaning, the first line essentially being: "Die! All Women, to a Sparkly Japan."

The prime minister was trying to convey the idea that "If Japanese women shine, Japan will shine even more,", adding that the government will increasingly support for women who work outside the home as well as those who work inside it.

According to Kotaku, the translation error is getting heat online in Japan and has been branded "utterly foolish".

It comes after Abe was forced to apologise when a member of his LDP party yelled sexist comments at a fellow politician as she was giving her first speech during a debate at the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly.