As the 9th TICAD, the Tokyo International Conference on African Development concluded in Yokohama City, late last month, a seemingly innocent initiative to foster “hometown” partnerships was launched by the Japan International Development Agency (JICA) in four African cities. JICA announced that four partner countries, Mozambique, Nigeria, Ghana and Tanzania, would be matched with four regional Japanese cities, Imabari, Kisarazu, Sanjo and Nagai. Public reception was not as expected, and decidedly negative.
While the initiative was conducted in consultation with each city and each had prior outreach and diplomatic ties to Africa, JICA could not control the vast quantity of misinformation that spread, with Japanese citizens concerned that the program would welcome immigrants from Africa, or worse, that some would have to “surrender” their hometowns in some unknown capacity.
For JICA, it was a major blunder at an inopportune time. Japan’s public support for immigration, even amid a declining population, is on shaky ground, evidenced by divided public support for immigrants, just as related protests in the United States heat up. Right-wing nationalist politicians and commentators have picked up the issue as a political wedge. As one YouTuber with more than 500,000 followers on X wrote in response, “I want to question the Japanese government. Japan is giving Nagai City, Yamagata Prefecture, to Tanzania…What on earth have you done behind the backs of the Japanese people? Know the anger of the citizens.”
Worse, the chosen cities themselves had to issue public clarifications and apologies themselves, with Imabari City’s mayor holding a press conference clearing up the position of the municipality on the JICA initiative, noting, “This matter is part of international exchange activities and is not an initiative aimed at promoting immigration policies or granting special residency qualifications.”
The JICA debacle underscores just how vulnerable Japan has become to the wave of right-wing populism that has had decidedly negative impacts elsewhere around the globe, from Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, Thaksin Shinawatra in Thailand, and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. It had been an underlying assumption that the Japanese political system had an effect of curtailing populist factions, with the lone exception of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who adopted an “outsider” rhetoric, and Yuriko Koike, the Tokyo Governor and former news broadcaster, who in 2017 pushed for a “reset” in Japan to protect its national security. Today, the new Sanseito political party and its leader, Sohei Kamiya, have hit the ground running after making major gains in the recent national elections. In the election post mortem, Sanseito has been working to build coalitions with other parties, including the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in local assemblies, potentially boosting its grassroots and regional political power, a far cry from the pre-COVID-19 era, when it could barely claim a single seat in Japan’s 248-seat Lower House.
Populism’s success in Japan comes from Sanseito’s borrowing of a more pragmatic European-style conservatism combined with tearing at Japan’s unhealed economic wounds of low wage growth, generations of those suffering from underemployment or part-time work, and declining savings rates. Answers, in the forms of tax cuts and populist policies aimed at refocusing public attention inward or “Japan First” has proven effective amid headlines of misbehaving tourists and accusations of foreigners raising the costs of housing or real estate, even though foreign nationals represent just 2.8 percent of the total population.
Recent xenophobic rhetoric also comes with significant blowback, as older stories resurface and once positive perceptions of Japanese hospitality and politeness are mixed with lesser-known truths of a homogenous society uncomfortable with race and ethnicity, with stories of racial discrimination, bullying of foreign students, and the 2019 “whitewashing” of Japanese tennis star, Naomi Osaka. Further, JICA’s mishandling of a necessary diplomatic initiative attracted the worst instincts of Japanese nationalists, who protested for its disbandment.
The spread of right-wing nationalism poses twin challenges to Japan, a country that must continue to compete in the public diplomacy space in continental Africa as well as continue to draw in foreign talent to stave off losses in global competitiveness. Japan has aimed to compete with China, but struggles to match Beijing’s strings-free development assistance, even though the former Kishida government in 2022 pledged as much as $30 billion to counter rising Chinese influence. Tokyo aimed to make up the difference by focusing on “quality” over quantity, and after TICAD 9, the emphasis under Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is on boosting Japan-African economic integration via a new trade and investment framework and boosting contributions to $36.7 billion.
Japan’s vulnerability to populist rhetoric makes the task of legitimizing the expense of needed African investment far more difficult. And as Japan draws inward, competitiveness declines, evidenced by a withdrawal of support for foreign graduate students. Foreign students seeking PhDs in Japan have hinted they’ll move elsewhere without financial support. The onus is no longer just on Japanese politicians to stop the rising tide of right-wing populism, but a primary duty of all of Japanese institutions, JICA included.
Xenophobia is often the byproduct of a society uncomfortable with an open discussion about difficult and controversial topics. As a corrective mechanism, institutions should redouble efforts to counter bullying, a problem that not only affects Japanese but foreigners, where in 2024, 68 percent of those surveyed with mixed ethnic or racial backgrounds had experienced bullying or discrimination. Campaigns associated with hate speech, as those in line with Japan’s 2016 “Hate Speech Elimination Act”, have had some success in public relations, but measurable reductions are difficult to track.
The gross miscommunication after a reasonably successful 9th TICAD is a major mistake, but a lesson in how far Japan really must go to adapt to a rapidly changing society.
