A far-right populist party promoting a “Japanese-first” agenda was one of the biggest winners in Sunday’s upper house elections, gaining 14 seats.
Set up on YouTube during the Covid-19 pandemic, when it spread conspiracy theories about vaccinations and global elites, Sanseito widened its appeal in the run-up to the vote – railing against immigration and bringing rhetoric that was once confined to political fringes into the mainstream.
The Liberal Democratic party of Shigeru Ishiba, the prime minister, and its partner, Komeito, lost their majority in the election, making the coalition even more beholden to opposition parties as it clings to power. Sanseito’s result took its total to 15 in the 248-seat chamber.
The party’s message resonated in Japan, where global inflation and a devalued yen have pushed up costs, particularly for food, after decades of almost flat prices. Rice prices in Japan near doubled in the year to June, sparking a political crisis and leading to the resignation of a cabinet minister.
Wages have failed to keep pace and the sense of a sluggish economy but comfortable lifestyle has given way to a cost-of-living squeeze and growing pessimism about the future. Those on lower incomes are hardest hit and it is from there that Sanseito is drawing much of its support.
“Many of its followers are first-time voters – the disaffected who feel the mainstream parties have nothing to offer them,” said Michael Cucek, an expert in Japanese politics at Tokyo’s Temple University, before the vote.
In its manifesto, Sanseito called for a return to traditional family values, repealing the LGBT Understanding Promotion Act, “protecting Japan’s unique cultural heritage”, curbing immigration and paying universal monthly child benefits of 100,000 yen (£500/US$670) while stopping welfare payments to non-Japanese.
“Anti-foreign sentiment that was considered maybe taboo to talk about so openly is now out of the box,” said Jeffrey Hall, a lecturer at Tokyo’s Kanda University who has studied Japan’s rightwing politics. He pointed to Sanseito’s online following, appeal among young men and warnings about immigration eroding indigenous cultures.
The party’s leader, Sohei Kamiya, a former supermarket manager and English teacher, says he has drawn inspiration from the “bold political style” of Donald Trump, the US president. He has drawn comparisons with rightwing, anti-immigration parties in Europe, such as Germany’s AFD and Reform UK.
“In the past, anyone who brought up immigration would be attacked by the left,” Kamiya told Reuters last week. “We are getting bashed too, but are also gaining support.”
Concern over foreign residents has increased since Japan loosened its relatively strict immigration policies in response to a worsening labour crunch caused by a shrinking and ageing population. The number of foreign-born residents hit a record of 3.8 million in 2024, although that is still only 3% of the total population, a tiny fraction compared with numbers in the US and Europe.
With nearly every sector short of workers, most Japanese people accept the need for more labour from overseas. Nevertheless, a large influx of outsiders into a relatively homogenous nation that values cultural conformity has triggered some disquiet.
Exacerbating such concerns is misinformation being spread on social media, including false claims that a third of welfare recipients are foreigners.
Tetsuya Kataoka, a voter in Tokyo who said he had had to take on extra shifts to make ends meet, accepts that Japan needs more immigrants to maintain its economy. But he added: “I’m struggling financially, and when people hear that foreigners are getting welfare – even if it’s only a small percentage of them – they wonder why it’s being paid to them instead of cutting our taxes.”
Speaking at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan on 3 July, Kamiya said his party was not in favour of extreme nationalism or protectionism and was aiming for “global harmony and mutually beneficial international economic relations but not excessive free trade or disregard for national sovereignty”.
Kamiya, who won the party’s first seat in 2022 after having gained notoriety for appearing to call for Japan’s emperor to take concubines, faced a backlash early in this year’s campaign for branding gender equality policies a mistake, saying they encourage women to work and keep them from having children.
He has since appeared to tone down some controversial ideas formerly embraced by the party. His election manifesto, for example, included plans to cut taxes and increase child benefits – policies promoted by a number of opposition parties that led investors to fret about Japan’s financial health and massive debt pile.
Reuters contributed to this report
