A popular story says that the novelist Natsume Sōseki once corrected a translation of “I love you.” A Japanese person would never say such a thing, he supposedly said. Translate it as Tsuki ga kirei desu ne, the moon is beautiful, isn’t it.
There is no record that Sōseki ever wrote or said this. The magazine All About calls it an urban legend with no known source. The earliest known printed version reportedly appeared in a magazine essay in 1977.