What’s Driving the Far-Right Voters Who Shook Japanese Politics
The small, upstart Sanseito party’s ‘Japanese First’ message capitalized on anxieties about immigration and frustration with the political establishment.
A Sanseito party rally in Tokyo on July 21, the day after the upper house election.
Photographer: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters
This summer, after a poor showing in upper house elections, Japan’s dominant Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner found themselves having to govern without a majority in either chamber of the parliament. Adding to the shock was the surge in votes for Sanseito, a far-right populist party that grew out of a YouTube channel started during the Covid-19 pandemic. Sanseito’s slogan is “Japanese First,” and it campaigned on a mix of tax cutting, protections for farmers, vaccine skepticism and restrictions on immigration and foreign investment.
The establishment conservative LDP still holds by far the most seats in the parliament, and the upper chamber is less powerful than the lower house. Still, the LDP’s electoral woes led to the resignation of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. On Oct. 4, the LDP is to set to anoint a new leader who will have to wrangle support from smaller political parties while trying to win back disaffected voters on the political right.