Japan PM Takaichi sees surge in social media replies regarding immigrants

A survey by Jiji Press has revealed a significant increase in replies mentioning foreign citizens or immigrants on Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s X account. Since her inauguration one year ago, approximately 7.5% of the 1.5 million replies to her posts have mentioned foreign nationals or immigrants, compared to only 1.8% of her actual posts containing those terms.

A notable spike occurred following a September 27 post regarding policies to tighten permanent residency requirements. On that day, comments related to foreign nationals jumped from 216 to 4,908. Many of these replies expressed concerns regarding the social security system or made unfounded claims regarding legal indictments.

The trend of high-volume replies has also appeared on unrelated topics. For instance, a post regarding child safety on October 18 received over 6,500 comments mentioning foreign nationals, despite the content being unrelated to immigration. The surge follows a period where the number of foreign residents in Japan reached a record high of over 4.28 million in June.