Japan's Foreign Ministry faces discrimination backlash over Islamic-style costume in anti-terror drill

Japan's Foreign Ministry is facing accusations of promoting discrimination and religious bias after photos from an anti-terrorism drill showed an actor playing a perpetrator dressed in attire evoking Islamic clothing. The ministry deleted the post after criticism mounted, but its response — which appeared to shift blame onto a contractor — has drawn further condemnation over what critics say is a lack of human rights awareness within the government.

According to the Asahi Shimbun on Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry posted photos on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday showing a joint public-private anti-terrorism and anti-kidnapping drill.

The photos sparked an online backlash after users noticed that the actor playing the perpetrator had an Arab-style cloth wrapped around his head, resembling the traditional scarves worn by Muslim men.

Netizens responded with sharp criticism. "This promotes prejudice against a specific ethnicity and religion," some wrote, while others demanded the government "immediately stop inciting discrimination against particular groups."

As the controversy spread, the ministry deleted the photos on Tuesday and issued a statement saying the costume was "not intended to evoke any particular ethnicity, region or religion" and that "such a misunderstanding was entirely unintentional."

However, a ministry official sought to deflect responsibility by noting that the drill had been outsourced to a private contractor, which had selected the costumes. The official further argued that "one of the perpetrators was playing a Japanese person, so no specific group was being targeted" — a defense that itself drew criticism as an attempt to dodge accountability.

The drill has been held annually since 2018, prompted by an attack by Islamic extremists in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2016 that killed 22 people, including seven Japanese nationals.

Critics say the backlash is unlikely to subside soon, given that the ministry responsible for diplomacy carelessly linked terrorism to a specific religion — and then responded to the fallout with a series of inadequate excuses, raising broader questions about the government's sensitivity to human rights.