Japan has dismissed reports that it is creating a special visa category for Nigerians wishing to relocate to Kisarazu, a city recently designated as Nigeria’s “hometown” under a new partnership scheme.
The clarification comes after Nigeria’s presidency, in a statement last week, suggested that Tokyo would introduce visas for highly skilled and talented Nigerians seeking to live and work in the Japanese city. The claim was widely circulated across local and international media outlets.
At the 9th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD9) in Yokohama, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) unveiled the “JICA Africa Hometown” initiative, which aims to foster deeper exchanges between Japanese municipalities and African countries. Under the scheme, Kisarazu was paired with Nigeria, while Nagai, Sanjo and Imabari were matched with Tanzania, Ghana and Mozambique respectively.
While acknowledging the programme, Japan’s foreign ministry on Monday stressed that it is purely cultural and developmental in scope and does not involve immigration measures.
“The ‘JICA Africa Hometown’ programme plans to promote exchanges between the four Japanese cities and the four African countries through activities such as exchange events involving JICA overseas cooperation volunteers,” the ministry said. “On the other hand, there are no plans to promote the acceptance of immigrants or issue special visas for residents of African countries. Reports suggesting otherwise are not true.”
The ministry added that it would continue to release official statements to prevent misinformation on the matter.
The Tinubu administration had earlier described the supposed visa scheme as a special dispensation for both skilled professionals and artisans from Nigeria, presenting it as a breakthrough in bilateral ties. The retraction from Tokyo has now cast doubt on those claims.
