Japan recently had to calm a wave of rumours flying around that it was “giving away” one of its cities to Tanzania. The gist started after the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) launched a cultural exchange programme, naming four Japanese cities as symbolic hometowns for Mozambique, Nigeria, Ghana, and Tanzania. The whole idea was just to build friendship, encourage volunteer work, and strengthen ties—but the message got twisted along the way.
During TICAD 9, the programme was announced as a symbolic partnership, but once the news hit the media, especially in Tanzania, the story took another shape. A Japanese word used—sasageru—was misinterpreted to mean “sacrifice,” and suddenly people believed that Nagai City was being handed over to Tanzania. In Nigeria, the government even announced a special visa category for skilled youth going to Kisarazu, before retracting the claim. By then, wahala had already started.
The backlash was massive. Some local governments in Japan said they received thousands of emails and phone calls from angry citizens in just one day. Social media wasn’t left out—posts filled with fear, xenophobia, and even racist undertones spread fast, with one tweet claiming a city was about to be “handed over to Africans” gathering over 4.6 million views.
Local mayors had to step in to calm nerves. Kisarazu’s mayor reminded people of the city’s international ties, like hosting Nigeria’s Olympic athletes, while Sanjō’s mayor clarified that no one ever asked them to accept Ghanaian migrants. Tokyo also joined the damage control—Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary outright denied any immigration deals, and the Foreign Ministry stressed that training programmes would remain temporary.
Things escalated further when pranksters renamed some city halls on Google Maps to “Ghana City Hall” and “Mozambique City Hall.” That only deepened the panic. Even after corrections, many Japanese citizens still didn’t trust the explanations, with some even calling for JICA to be scrapped.
At the heart of this drama lies Japan’s bigger challenge—balancing its shrinking population with its long-standing hesitation toward immigration. Despite labour shortages, foreigners still make up just 3% of Japan’s population. This whole saga showed how easily a good initiative can turn into controversy when mistranslated and misunderstood, especially in a society already uneasy about migration.
