‘JICA Africa Hometown’ Misinformation Sees City Govts Flooded by Complaints via Phone, Email

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:05 JST, August 26, 2025

Four city governments have been flooded with complaints due to misinformation spread on social media after the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) designated the cities as “hometowns” of specific African nations.

The agency designated each of the four cities a “JICA Africa Hometown” on Thursday during the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 9), which was held in Yokohama.

Kisarazu, Chiba Prefecture, was named the hometown of Nigeria; Nagai, Yamagata Prefecture, the hometown of Tanzania; Sanjo, Niigata Prefecture, the hometown of Ghana; and Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, the hometown of Mozambique.

The initiative is aimed at promoting person-to-person exchanges through visits and training, among other programs, according to the agency.

However, the announcement ignited misinformed speculation on social media that the initiative would lead to an increase in the number of immigrants and impact local security. The city offices have since been flooded with complaints via telephone and email.

The misunderstanding is believed to have been caused by announcements by the African side and media reports in those countries, in which it was mistakenly said that the initiative is designed to facilitate the admission of immigrants.

JICA is denying such information and calling on people to respond calmly. The agency says the program is not meant to facilitate either the admission of immigrants or the issuance of special visas.

The Sanjo city government had received about 300 telephone calls and thousands of emails as of 2 p.m. on Monday. Ghanaian government officials plan to visit the city between September and October to inspect rice paddies. “We are extremely puzzled that the program has been reported and understood in a completely different way [to what was intended],” said a representative of the city government.

At the Kisarazu city government office, the telephones did not stop ringing on Monday. It also received more than 700 emails. This prompted Mayor Yoshikuni Watanabe to post a message on the city’s website, saying that the city has not requested the admission of immigrants or measures to relax the requirements for issuing special work visas.

JICA said some media reports in the four African countries contained inaccuracies and potentially misleading information, adding that it is urging the media to promptly correct the inaccuracies contained in their coverage.