Japan withdraws the Jica initiative “Africa HomeTown” – Thage

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) has announced the withdrawal of its “Africa HomeTown” initiative, citing widespread misunderstandings and concerns that emerged in Japan compared to the program.

The regime, presented in August at the ninth international conference of Tokyo on African development, had coupled four African countries with four Japanese municipalities to encourage cultural, educational and development exchanges.

Under the agreement, Nigeria was linked to Kisarazu, Tanzania with Nagai in the prefecture of Yamagata, Ghana with Sanjo in the prefecture of Niigata and Mozambique with Imabari in the prefecture of Ehime.

However, the controversy followed the designation of cities as “African cities” after local governments have been flooded with investigations that suggest that the program included immigration or visas privileges.

The confusion intensified in August when the State House of Nigeria announced that Japan had designated Kisarazu as a “hometown” for the Nigerians and would have introduced a special visa category for qualified Nigerians who wished to live and work there.

The request was promptly rejected by the Japanese government.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry later clarified that the initiative was severely limited to cultural and development exchanges and did not give any benefit for immigration.

The explanation followed a public ceremony in which the Chargers d’Affaires in Japan, Florence Akinyemi Adeseke, and the mayor of Kisarazu, Yoshikuni Watanabe, received a certificate that named the city the “hometown” of the Nigerians, an event that further fed the species of migration.

In a declaration published on its website, Jica admitted that the terminology of the “hometown” and the designation of the Japanese municipalities as they caused “misunderstandings and confusion in Japan, placing an excessive burden for the four municipalities”.

The agency stressed that she has never pursued immigration programs and has no plans to do it in the future “.

“Initially, based on this initiative, it was expected that the exchange programs were coordinated and implemented among local Japanese governments, relevant African countries and jica. The specific details had to be determined later,” he said.

Excusing us with the affected municipalities, Jica said: “The very nature of this initiative, that is, the term” hometown “and the fact that Jica would have” designated “local Japanese governments as” Christmas city “, led to misunderstanding and confusion. Jica apologize sincerely with the municipalities involved to cause such a situation.”

“After consulting all the parties involved, Jica decided to withdraw the” Jica Africa “initiative, added the agency.