In Japan, a cooperation project with African countries caught up in xenophobia

Following the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, held under the auspices of the Japanese government from August 20 to 22, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) launched a project to promote relations between four Japanese municipalities and four countries on the continent (Nigeria, Tanzania, Mozambique, Ghana).

But in a Japan marked by the rise of the far-right Sanseito party, the initiative has turned into an affair that shows how politically explosive issues concerning immigration have become in the archipelago.

The idea was to designate the four Japanese cities as “hometowns” (“cities of residence”) of these four African countries, in order to strengthen their ties, through visits and the hosting of interns, according to information relayed by the Japanese public broadcaster NHK . These Japanese municipalities were not chosen at random: “They had already established deep ties with the respective [African] countries, for example by hosting their delegation of athletes during the Tokyo Olympic Games,” in 2021, indicates the channel.

However, by misunderstanding the nature of the project, the Nigerian government and certain media in the countries concerned