Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced Sunday that he will resign as his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) plunges in the polls, rocked by public outrage over his government’s controversial “African Hometown” program. Critics have blasted the scheme as a thinly veiled backdoor to mass migration from Africa into Japan.
Ishiba, 68, who took office in October, had resisted calls for resignation for more than a month, warning that stepping down would create a political vacuum at a time of national and international challenges. His departure comes just one day before the LDP was scheduled to decide on holding an early leadership election, a move widely seen as a no-confidence vote.
The tipping point appears to be public fury over the Africa Hometown initiative, launched last month by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The program paired four Japanese cities with counterparts in Mozambique, Nigeria, Ghana, and Tanzania.
The Nigerian government quickly announced that Japan would issue a special visa category for highly skilled and talented young Nigerians to move to Kisarazu, the Japanese city linked with Nigeria. Artisans and blue-collar workers would also qualify for “special dispensation” work visas.
The backlash was immediate and fierce. Japanese citizens erupted in anger after discovering that Google Maps had begun labeling the Kisarazu city office as the “Nigerian city office.” Residents in the other three participating cities—Sanjo, Nagai, and Imabari—flooded their municipal governments with complaints as word of the Nigerian statement spread.
Japan faces one of the steepest demographic declines in the world, long warned as a looming crisis for the world’s fourth-largest economy. While Ishiba’s government sought to use migration to address the issue, the move fueled anti-immigration sentiment and boosted the surging right-wing Sanseito party, which campaigned on a “Japanese First” platform and has recently gained significant ground in parliament.
