TOKYO — The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has denied social media claims that Japan agreed to accept 100,000 workers from Bangladesh after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi met Bangladeshi Prime Minister Tarique Rahman on Oct. 27.

Foreign Ministry Press Secretary Toshihiro Kitamura rejected the claims in an Oct. 29 post on X, saying, “no such fact exists, including within the discussions during the Japan-Bangladesh Summit Meeting.”

A joint statement issued after the Oct. 27 meeting noted that Takaichi expressed expectations that Japanese private-sector investment in Bangladesh would reach 1 trillion yen (about $6.7 billion) over the next five years. The document also stated that the investment could generate approximately 200,000 jobs in Bangladesh.

According to the Foreign Ministry, the figure refers to jobs expected to be created within Bangladesh through Japanese investment and has no connection to the dispatch of workers to Japan. The ministry also said that none of the six letters and memorandums of understanding exchanged between the two countries in connection with the meeting dealt with immigration or labor deployment.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and other agencies signed a “Memorandum of Cooperation on the Employment for Skill Development Program” with Bangladesh in September and October. A Foreign Ministry official said, “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.”

(Japanese original by Minami Nomaguchi, Political News Department)