English and French+ German don't match.
What do Japanese and Chinese say please?

That is not my question. I know German is indirect in this case.
English and French don't match from Japanese, one has to be wrong but my level of Japanese is not sufficient for me to assess.
But I also want to have a confirmation for Chinese, because I don't want to create a cascading problem if I update one of those.

Japanese says (literally): "I met (encountered) an old friend of mine".

Thank you, so that's what I thought: English translation is wrong.

The English translation wasn't wrong. 'saw' also means 'met'.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/see
13. to meet and converse with: Are you seeing her at lunch today?

Well, to me, seeing somebody and meeting them is not the same. I can see you without meeting you and possibly even meet you without seeing you if you're somewhat hidden behind a veil/...

In this case, out of context, you cannot suppose that there is any conversation involved in "saw".

> In this case, out of context, you cannot suppose that there is
> any conversation involved in "saw".

Yes I can. I just did.

In fact, without context, I think it is unlikely that you would have just 'noticed and recognized' and old friend without saying hello.

I might perfectly if I'm in a moving car, train, tram, metro and he's on the other side of the window...
The fact that I see him doesn't imply he does me!