JICA designated four regional Japanese cities as "Africa hometowns" for Mozambique, Nigeria, Ghana and Tanzania to foster personnel exchanges and events. Media coverage and Japanese-language references to foreign articles prompted widespread social media outrage and misinformation suggesting special immigration privileges. Viral posts and claims led to millions of views and thousands of angry calls and emails to city offices. Local officials reported hundreds of phone calls and thousands of emails seeking clarification about immigration policy. Government officials stated the claims were baseless and confirmed there are no plans to promote accepting immigrants or issue special visas.
An attempt to promote friendship between Japan and countries in Africa has transformed into a xenophobic row about migration after inaccurate media reports suggested the scheme would lead to a flood of immigrants. The controversy erupted after the Japan International Cooperation Agency, or JICA, said this month it had designated four Japanese cities as Africa hometowns for partner countries in Africa: Mozambique, Nigeria, Ghana and Tanzania.
Media coverage in the four countries, and Japanese-language references to the articles, have been blamed for triggering an ugly backlash on social media in Japan, along with a wave of angry calls and emails to the Japanese cities' offices. Some critics appeared to believe that hometown status meant that people from the African countries would be given special permission to live and work in their Japanese partner cities. If immigrants come flooding in, who is going to take responsibility? said one social media post.
Our team of 15 officials spent a whole day handling hundreds of phone calls and thousands of emails from residents, an official in Sanjo told Agence France-Presse. The town has received 350 phone calls and 3,500 emails since Monday, the official said, while Imabari has fielded 460 calls and 1,400 emails from residents asking if the town had adopted a new immigration policy.
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