Japan denies claim it agreed to accept 100,000 workers from Bangladesh

TOKYO -- The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has refuted social media assertions that Tokyo had agreed to welcome 100,000 Bangladeshi workers following Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's visit to Dhaka on October 27th. In an Oct. 29 statement on X, the Foreign Ministry's press secretary, Toshihiro Kitamura, dismissed the claims, stating, "no such fact exists, including within the discussions during the Japan-Bangladesh Summit Meeting."

A joint declaration issued post the Oct. 27 meeting revealed that Takaichi had voiced hopes for Japanese private-sector investments in Bangladesh to hit 1 trillion yen ($6.7 billion) over the subsequent five years. This commitment could potentially generate around 200,000 jobs in Bangladesh. However, according to the Foreign Ministry, these job projections specifically pertain to employment opportunities arising from Japanese investments in Bangladesh and bear no relation to the transfer of workers to Japan.

Furthermore, the ministry clarified that none of the six letters and memorandums of understanding signed between the two nations during the summit discussions addressed immigration or labor deployment. Simultaneously, the Japanese Ministries of Justice, Health, Labor and Welfare, along with other agencies, inked a Memorandum of Cooperation on the Employment for Skill Development Program with Bangladesh from September to October.

A Foreign Ministry official explained, "It is something we are concluding with each country in sequence as the technical intern training program will be replaced by the Employment for Skill Development program. It contains no numerical targets."