Recent claims circulating on Facebook alleged that Japan announced a plan to resettle migrants from Nigeria, Tanzania, Ghana, and Mozambique at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (Ticad) in August 2025. These posts claimed that Japan had created a special visa program for African migrants, with four Japanese cities designated as "hometowns" to address labor shortages and revitalize rural areas. However, investigations confirm these claims are entirely false and misrepresent an initiative focused on cultural exchange.

The ninth edition of Ticad, a forum launched in 1993 by Japan in partnership with the United Nations, African Union, and World Bank to strengthen cooperation with Africa, was held in Yokohama from August 20 to 22, 2025. This gathering brought together African leaders, Japanese officials, and international partners to discuss crucial topics such as trade, development, technology, peace, and security. While demographic change and labor mobility have been discussed at past Ticad meetings, no visa program or settlement scheme for African migrants was announced at the 2025 forum.

The viral posts misinterpreted a new initiative unveiled at the summit: the "hometown" program. Run by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, this program establishes partnerships between four Japanese cities—Kisarazu, Nagai, Sanjō, and Imabari—and four African countries: Nigeria, Tanzania, Ghana, and Mozambique, respectively. These Japanese cities were selected due to their smaller regional status, facing population decline and seeking to forge international ties through cultural exchange. Notably, these cities also hosted athletes from the respective African countries during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The false claims triggered a significant backlash, including xenophobic comments and numerous inquiries to the named Japanese cities. For instance, Imabari reported receiving hundreds of complaints, and officials in Nagai were inundated with concerns from worried residents. Japanese officials promptly acted to correct the misinformation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs explicitly dismissed these claims as "not true," stating, "... There are no plans to take measures to promote the acceptance of immigrants or issue special visas for residents of African countries, and the series of reports and announcements concerning such measures are not true."

As of 2023, Japan's Immigration Services Agency reported that just under 40,000 African nationals legally resided in Japan, constituting merely 1.2% of the country's total foreign population of approximately 3.2 million. The majority of these African residents are students, professionals, or technical trainees, with the largest groups of foreign residents in Japan originating from countries like China, Vietnam, and the Philippines. This context further underscores the fabricated nature of the migrant resettlement claims.