WHAT WAS CLAIMED
Japan Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi announced a new Ministry for Mass Deportations.
OUR VERDICT
False. No Ministry for Mass Deportations has been created.
AAP FACTCHECK - Japan's new prime minister did not create a ministry for mass deportations as her first action after being sworn in, despite online claims.
Sanae Takaichi has called for tighter immigration restrictions, but she has not established a ministry to deport migrants at scale.
The claim about the conservative prime minister, who was elected in October, appears in a Facebook post from an Australian account.
"BREAKING First ever female prime minister in Japan named as Sanae Takaichi," the caption reads.
"She immediately created a ministry for mass deportations.
"'We are sending them all home, remigration' said Sanae. Congratulations Japan."
Another Facebook post from a New Zealand account claims: "Sanae Takaichi walks into office and BOOM First move? A new Ministry for Mass Deportations."
Another post includes a video of a politician being photographed while walking into an event.
"NEW PRIME MINISTER OF JAPAN MAKES MASS DEPORTATIONS FIRST POLICY" the caption reads.
There are no recent government announcements about plans to deport foreigners en masse.
Nor is there any mention of a new deportation ministry on the prime minister's website.
Her cabinet's "Basic Policy", released the day she became prime minister, does not mention immigration or deportations, nor does a statement she released that day.
Immigration and deportations are also not mentioned in transcripts of her subsequent press conferences.
The woman in the clip shared online isn't Takaichi, but the newly-appointed Economic Security Minister, Kimi Onoda.
Onoda was given the title of "Minister in Charge of a Society of Well-Ordered and Harmonious Coexistence with Foreign Nationals".
This office was established in July 2025 under previous prime minister Shigeru Ishiba, a government press release said.
It was set up to respond to issues such as crime and over-tourism involving foreigners, Reuters reported.
Purnendra Jain, a professor of Asian studies at the University of Adelaide, told AAP FactCheck the claim that Takaichi announced a "mass deportations" ministry was false.
However, Takaichi does hold a "tough stance" on foreigners in Japan, he said.
He pointed to statements she made during her campaign to become the Liberal Democratic Party's president about allegations that foreigners kicked deer in Nara Park.
Takaichi said she had confirmed that foreign tourists were involved in the deer attack, but local officials said they had no reports of such violence, the Asahi Shimbun reported.
Throughout her election campaign, the PM called for restrictions on non-Japanese people buying property and for a crackdown on illegal immigration, The Guardian reported.
Aurelia George Mulgan, an expert on Japanese politics at UNSW, said she had seen no reports of Takaichi creating a "Ministry for Mass Deportations".
"She does have concerns about Japan's high intake levels of migrants, but her response has not included the former, which would be publicly unacceptable," Professor George Mulgan told AAP FactCheck.
Some of the social media posts appear to include fabricated quotes.
There are no credible reports that Takaichi has used the term "remigration", a proposal linked to far-right ideology in the West to deport the residents of a country to their place of ethnic ancestry.
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