Clips misrepresented as Takaichi's order to expel foreign nationals
- Published on March 3, 2026 at 08:16
- 3 min read
- By Liesa PAUWELS, AFP Netherlands, AFP Thailand
- Translation and adaptation Pasika KHERNAMNUOY
Japan's conservative Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has vowed tougher measures on immigration, but a video circulating online does not show her ordering the deportation of foreigners who are "unable to adjust to Japanese culture" after Muslims prayed at a famous castle in the country's western city of Himeji. The footage stitched unrelated clips and there are no official reports of Takaichi's purported directive.
"Japan's heated reaction! PM Takaichi moves to deport foreigners deemed 'unable to adjust to Japanese culture' after Muslims perform prayers at Himeji Castle without permission," reads a Thai-language Facebook reel published on February 16, 2026.
The post included a video of a young lawmaker raising her hand and speaking, followed by clips of Japan's house speaker and the prime minister bowing.
It was published by local media outlet BrightTV, while the post has since been shared over 4,000 times (archived link).
An AFP reporter confirmed with an official at the Himeji castle that the public worship did take place at the premises in March 2025.
The claim surfaced after Takaichi's ruling Liberal Demoratic Party secured a two-thirds supermajority in the lower house from a snap election on February 8, 2026 (archived link).
Takaichi has promised to tighten rules surrounding immigration, even though Asia's number two economy is struggling with labour shortages and a falling population (archived link).
The LDP manifesto published in early 2026 did not mention any specific measures against Muslims (archived link).
Another version of the claim spread elsewhere on Facebook, X and TikTok which said that Japan had banned large mosques, Muslim prayers and production of halal food. The claims were also shared in multiple languages such as Dutch, English, Korean.
But the videos are unrelated and AFP found no official reports that Japan's new government had announced mass deportations or anti-Islam laws in February (archived link).
Burial grounds debate
Reverse image and keyword searches on Google found a matching YouTube video published on the official account of far-right lawmaker Mizuho Umemura from the anti-immigration Sanseito party on November 27, 2025 (archived here, here and here).
The footage shows Mizuho addressing parliament on the topic of Muslim burial grounds, reigniting a debate about a plea for more land for burials from the Muslim community in Japan.
She strongly opposed the proposal of dedicated cemeteries, saying Muslims in Japan "can either be cremated or have their remains repatriated" at their own expense.
The first clip in the false post corresponds to the 11:58 mark of the YouTube video (archived link).
Although there are no bans on burials in Japan, Muslim communities' efforts to secure dedicated burial grounds have been met with local resistance due to the country's limited cemetery space, Japanese media reported (archived here and here).
Parliament dissolution
Separate reverse image searches using keyframes of the second clip led to a video published on the verified YouTube account of Japanese media program TBS News Dig on January 23, 2026 (archived link).
Parts of the Japanese-language description says that the footage shows Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi dissolving the lower house of parliament, triggering a snap election with a 16-day campaign period -- the shortest since the end of World War II.
The falsely shared clip corresponds to the 0:13 mark of the YouTube video, where the speaker of the House of Representatives announces the dissolution "in accordance with Article 7 of the Constitution of Japan."
AFP distributed a similar photo of Takaichi among other lawmakers as they shouted "banzai," a traditional rallying cry (archived here and here).
AFP has previously debunked misinformation about Japan's purported mass deportation of foreigners.
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