The Japan International Cooperation Agency is set to designate at least four cities in the country as “hometowns” for certain nations in Africa at the 2025 Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), scheduled to begin on Wednesday.

The agency, which assists with implementing development assistance in developing countries, will assign the city of Nagai in Yamagata Prefecture to Tanzania, the city of Kisarazu in Chiba Prefecture to Nigeria, the city of Sanjo in Niigata Prefecture to Ghana and the city of Imabari in Ehime Prefecture to Mozambique.

Through the arrangement, Japan looks to strengthen exchanges with the respective African countries by officially connecting municipalities that already have existing relations with those nations.

Having such ties that serve as a foundation for two-way exchanges of human resources will contribute to Japan’s national interest in fostering personnel who can be a link to Africa, given expectations that the continent’s population will play a key role in global development as it continues to grow.

Local authorities hope that the designations would lead to an increase in their cities' populations, which would contribute toward their regional revitalization efforts.

Discussions among the related parties, such as the mayors of the cities and embassy representatives from the four countries, are set to be held on Thursday during the three-day run of TICAD.

The event, which first began in 1993 as an international conference centering on the theme of development in Africa, will mark its ninth opening in Yokohama on Wednesday. The previous conference was held in Tunisia in 2022. Between Wednesday and Friday, various symposiums as well as meetings and seminars will be held.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is also set to announce Japan’s plan to accelerate development of the Nacala Corridor, a logistics network between Zambia and a port in Mozambique, at the conference.