‘Easier targets’: is Japan safe for foreigners if disaster strikes?

Name: Tokyo in flames: the earthquake that changed Japan forever
Uploaded: 2026-01-13T00:00:13.000Z
Duration: 10 min 35 s
Description: Tokyo in flames: the earthquake that changed Japan forever

Rising xenophobia, ‘vigilante’ patrols and memories of 1923 have rights advocates concerned that history could repeat itself

Reading Time:3 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

Foreign tourists visit a temple in Tokyo, Japan, last month. Photo: EPA

Julian Ryall

Published: 8:00am, 13 Jan 2026Updated: 8:52am, 13 Jan 2026

A century after thousands of foreigners were massacred in Japan following a devastating earthquake, human rights advocates worry about rising vigilantism should disaster strike again.

It follows calls from the mayor of at least one Japanese city for citizens to form “vigilante groups” in response to reports of rising crime by foreign nationals.

“This is symptomatic of Japan’s changing demographics and the rise of xenophobia,” Teppei Kasai of Human Rights Watch in Tokyo told This Week in Asia, pointing to the unprecedented number of foreign workers and tourists the country had seen in recent years.

Smoke rises over damaged buildings in Tokyo after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. Photo: Kyodo News/AP

A government panel assessing the possible impact of a major Tokyo earthquake warned in December of the potential for communications breakdown and unrest in the aftermath of a natural disaster, citing the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 as a historical precedent.

Historians estimate that 6,000 Koreans, Chinese and other foreign nationals were killed in Japan that year after baseless rumours accused them of poisoning water supplies and looting following the earthquake. Far-right groups deny the massacre ever happened.

Foreign residents and relief workers were similarly accused of committing crimes in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in 2011. Unfounded claims of “foreign robbers” also spread on social media after a quake hit Ishikawa prefecture in January 2024.

10:35

Tokyo in flames: the earthquake that changed Japan forever

‘Easier targets’

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x

‘Easier targets’: is Japan safe for foreigners if disaster strikes?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Rising xenophobia, ‘vigilante’ patrols and memories of 1923 have rights advocates concerned that history could repeat itself

‘Easier targets’

Rising xenophobia, ‘vigilante’ patrols and memories of 1923 have rights advocates concerned that history could repeat itself