TOKYO: False claims that Japan’s new prime minister has created a ministry for “mass deportations” have been widely spread online, as immigration misinformation swirls after a “Japanese first” party did well in elections earlier this year.
The misleading statements circulating on X and Facebook — largely in English — say Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s first woman premier who was sworn in this week, asked Kimi Onoda to lead the ministry.
Onoda was on Tuesday tapped for a number of roles, chiefly economic security minister and minister in charge of a “society of well-ordered and harmonious coexistence with foreign nationals.”
A department with the same name was created under Takaichi’s predecessor, Shigeru Ishiba, although the appointment of a cabinet minister to supervise it is new.
At a press conference Wednesday, Onoda said that Japan “will strictly handle foreign nationals who do not follow the rules,” but there was no mention of mass deportations.
