Sayonara, JICA Hometown: We Hardly Knew You

The Japan International Cooperation Agency unveiled its 'Hometown' project in August: 4 cities in Japan paired with 4 African countries to foster cultural and intellectual exchange. What's not to like? Except that xenophobic netizens mischaracterized the initiative as immigration promotion- utterly false, let me stress. Sanjo City, Niigata, was one of the partner cities. From the original press release until 9/24, the city received 9,000 complaints and queries. Among the enlightened comments, as reported in the local paper today: It's horrible. The city will become infested with Africans./ Sanjo City and Japan will be destroyed when these people run amok. Not universally shared, but it's also true that more Japanese (than is apparent) feel this way but are too polite to show it. The story: