A platform that so often seems to promote division is bringing people together for a change — and Americans are learning the joy of one of the last great undiscovered parts of the internet.

U.S.-based users of X, formerly known as Twitter, were this weekend bombarded with Japanese-language posts, thanks to AI-enabled auto-translation and what looks like a change to the feed-populating algorithm. It’s a rare crossover of X’s two biggest user bases, one that would have been impossible until recently.

It started with a shared passion of both nations: grilling meat. A Japanese user in Sasebo, a city near Nagasaki that’s home to a U.S. Navy base, shared a drawing of U.S. soldiers excitedly grilling bacon at a yakiniku restaurant. The post aimed to show how residents "live alongside such cool and fun neighbors,” and was followed by another with a photo of actual Americans barbecuing. It quickly got global attention, racking up nearly 50 million views, and leading to a flood of wholesome posts from both sides of the Pacific.

© The Japan Times