Japan’s Africa Outreach Sparks Outrage at Home | Vantage with Palki Sharma | N18G

For our next story tonight, let’s shift our attention to Japan. Their government has been in damage control mode for days now. And finally, they have made a strange proclamation. They want everyone to know that no, they will not be giving away a Japanese city to Tanzania. Yes, the country in East Africa. Now, to understand what’s going on here, let’s look at the bigger picture. the continent of Africa. It is vast. It is home to a young fast growing population and it has huge mineral wealth, vast deposits of natural resources from gold and diamonds to cobalt and uranium. So competition has been growing. Countries are fighting for influence in Africa. From former colonial powers like France, Belgium and the UK to the US, China and Russia. They’ve all been in this race. And now another player has entered this crowded space. Japan. They have made a range of moves in recent weeks. Most of them are grand promises like loans of more than $5 billion, trainings for digital transformation and an economic zone. This is what the Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has proposed. He wants to connect the Indian Ocean to Africa and spur investment in the continent. But that’s not all. Last week, Japan also hosted a summit, an Africa summit called the Tokyo International Conference on African Development or TIC AAD. It was a three-day conference on African Development, and it hosted leaders from about 50 African countries. We, the people of Japan, wish to laugh, cry, and break a sweat alongside the people of Africa. And Japan indeed did break a sweat soon after the summit. Everything was going fine. But then Tokyo made an announcement and the overdrive quickly became overkill. Japan introduced a program, a cultural exchange initiative. They selected four Japanese cities which will foster ties with four African countries, Mozambique, Nigeria, Ghana, and Tanzania. There will be exchange events. African volunteers will visit the four Japanese cities or what the government calls hometowns for the partner countries. Now, they meant symbolic hometowns, but people did not really catch that nuance. Soon, misinformation spread. Local African media was over the moon. They published reports saying a Japanese city will now be part of Tanzania. The Nigerian government also added fuel to the fire. They said that Japan will create a special visa for young Nigerians. And the backlash was swift. You see, Japan has traditionally been strict on immigration. Plus ethnically and even culturally the society is largely homogeneous. So these statements led to furore especially on social media. Most comments were blatantly racist. People worried about a flood of immigrants about the possible lack of safety or the burden on their resources. Japanese city officers received a wave of angry calls and mails. They got thousands of complaints. So now the central government has stepped in. Tokyo has called the claims baseless. It has reassured the public saying that there are no plans to promote immigration or to issue any kind of special visas. African outlets have also taken down their reports and the Nigerian government has removed its announcement. But the damage has been done. In recent months, Japan has seen a surge in anti-forigner sentiment. There are fears about job losses amid other growing problems like stagnant wages, high inflation and a high cost of living. This has left Prime Minister Ishiba on shaky ground. Japan held its parliamentary elections recently. Ishiba’s ruling coalition suffered a bruising defeat in the upper house. He has vowed to remain in office but his leadership has repeatedly come under doubt and in this backdrop he has tried to expand his global outreach by partnering with African countries but it seems to have backfired. What was meant to build closer ties has exposed deep fault lines and what was meant to forge links has not only further distanced Ishiba from the public but also put his Africa ambitions in jeopardy. [Music] First post now available in nine languages on YouTube. English, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish. [Music] Go to settings, click on audio track, and select the language of your choice. Be the first to know what’s happening around you in your first language. [Music] First post. [Music]