An try to advertise friendship between Japan and international locations in Africa has remodeled right into a xenophobic row about migration after inaccurate media studies urged the scheme would result in a “flood of immigrants”.
The controversy erupted after the Japan Worldwide Cooperation Company, or JICA, mentioned this month it had designated 4 Japanese cities as “Africa hometowns” for companion international locations in Africa: Mozambique, Nigeria, Ghana and Tanzania.
The programme, introduced on the finish of a world convention on African improvement in Yokohama, will contain personnel exchanges and occasions to foster nearer ties between the 4 regional Japanese cities – Imabari, Kisarazu, Sanjo and Nagai – and the African nations.
Media protection within the 4 international locations, and Japanese-language references to the articles, have been blamed for triggering an unpleasant backlash on social media in Japan, together with a wave of offended calls and emails to the Japanese cities’ workplaces.
Some critics appeared to consider that “hometown” standing meant that folks from the African international locations can be given particular permission to stay and work of their Japanese companion cities.
“If immigrants come flooding in, who’s going to take duty?” mentioned one social media put up.
One put up on X claiming that Kisarazu was “severely contemplating handing over the town to Africans” attracted 4.6m views.
The 4 cities have obtained 1000’s of complaints from confused residents. “Our staff of 15 officers spent a complete day dealing with tons of of cellphone calls and 1000’s of emails from residents,” an official in Sanjo advised Agence France-Presse.
The city has obtained 350 cellphone calls and three,500 emails since Monday, the official mentioned, whereas Imabari has fielded 460 calls and 1,400 emails from residents asking if the city had adopted a brand new immigration coverage.
Japan’s chief cupboard secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi, mentioned the claims had been baseless. “There are not any plans to advertise accepting immigrants or situation particular visas,” he advised reporters.
The cities additionally tried to set the report straight. The mayor of Kisarazu, Yoshikuni Watanabe, identified that the town had hosted Nigerian athletes in the course of the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Video games, including that challenge wouldn’t result in “accepting migrants”.
He added: “Our initiatives will contain cooperating within the schooling of younger individuals primarily based on self-discipline by way of baseball and softball, and it’s not a programme that may result in relocation or immigration.”
The mayor of Sanjo, Ryo Takizawa, mentioned in an announcement: “It isn’t true that the town has requested to just accept migrants or immigrants from Ghana, and the town has no plans to make such a request sooner or later.”
Some attributed the outcry to an article within the Tanzania Occasions that carried the headline “Japan dedicates Nagai metropolis to Tanzania.”
The phrase “dedicates” was translated on social media into the Japanese phrase sasageru, which might be interpreted to imply the city was being “sacrificed” to Tanzania, in response to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.
Nigeria’s authorities additionally appeared to have misunderstood the main points of the programme, describing Kisarazu as a location open to “Nigerians keen to stay and work [in Japan]”. Japan’s authorities, it added, would create a particular visa class for expert individuals from the West African nation.
Japan’s international ministry has reportedly requested the Nigerian authorities to situation a correction, whereas JICA – a authorities company – said a number of media organisations had printed articles containing “inaccuracies and probably deceptive info”.
“JICA is presently urging the related native media and the African authorities [sic] to promptly appropriate the inaccuracies contained of their protection,” it mentioned on its web site.
