How a far-right 'Japanese First' party made big election gains

[Initech]

Japan’s far-right populist Sanseito party was one of the biggest winners in the weekend’s upper house election, attracting many voters with its “Japanese First” platform that included calling for tougher restrictions on foreigners and the curtailment of gender equality and diversity policies.

Sanseito added 14 seats in Sunday’s vote to the one seat already held by its leader in the 248-member upper house, the less powerful of Japan’s two-chamber parliament.

The surge in the party’s popularity came amid the backdrop of a historic loss by the long-governing conservative coalition of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, with Sanseito attracting frustrated voters struggling with economic woes.

Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya said Tuesday that he has no interest in forming an alliance with conventional parties like Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP.

Kamiya said he is open to cooperating with other emerging parties, but he’s expected to wait in the hopes of gaining more seats in the more powerful lower house. His ambition is to have more influence to possibly form a multiparty coalition like those in Europe.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/22/how-a-far-right-japanese-first-party-made-big-election-gains-00469081

Oh fucking puke! Save yourselves before it's too late, Japan! This reeks of Steve Bannon meddling.

[dalton99a]

1. .

Sanseito party stood out from Japan’s other parties, with a tough anti-foreigner stance as part of its “Japanese First” platform, apparently inspired by U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America First” policy.

Under his slogan, Kamiya proposes a new agency to handle regulations on foreigners. During the election, the party campaigned for stricter screening for allowing Japanese citizenship and to exclude non-Japanese from welfare benefits.

Critics say that the party’s stance has encouraged the spread of xenophobic rhetoric in the election campaign and on social media, prompting other ultraconservative candidates to be outspoken. A typical claim is that a rapid increase in foreign workers has hurt Japanese workers’ wages and that foreigners use a large share of welfare benefits and have made Japanese society unsafe.

That resonated with many Japanese, even though most foreign residents pay taxes and social security as required, and only account for about 3% of both Japan’s total population and of welfare benefit recipients.

Kamiya, a former Self-Defense Force reservist and an assembly member in the western town of Suita, promotes an anti-vaccine and anti-globalism platform, while backpedaling on gender equality and sexual diversity. He has repeatedly talked favorably about Trump for taking bold measures.