A disillusioned Japanese electorate feeling the economic pinch goes to the polls today, as a right-wing party promoting a “Japanese first” agenda gains popularity, with fears over foreigners becoming a major election issue.
Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic, spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the Sanseito Party has widened its appeal ahead of today’s upper house vote — railing against immigration and dragging rhetoric that was once confined to Japan’s political fringes into the mainstream.
Polls show the party might only secure 10 to 15 of the 125 seats up for grabs, but it is further eroding the support of Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s shaky minority government, which is increasingly beholden to opposition parties as it clings to power.
Photo: AFP
Analysts say a heavy defeat for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) would likely cost Ishiba his job, while a strong showing by the emergent Sanseito could shake up Japan’s political landscape.
Sanseito’s message has 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 nearly doubled in the year to last year, 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 a comfortable lifestyle has given way to a cost-of-living squeeze and growing pessimism.
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.
In its manifesto, Sanseito calls 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 (US$673), 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,” Kanda University lecturer Jeffrey Hall said, citing 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, said he has drawn inspiration from US President Donald Trump’s “bold political style.”
“In the past, anyone who brought up immigration would be attacked by the left,” Kamiya said. “We are getting bashed too, but are also gaining support.”
The concern over foreign residents comes after Japan recently loosened its relatively strict immigration policies in response to a labor crunch caused by its shrinking and aging population.
The number of foreign-born residents reached a record 3.8 million last year, although that is still just 3 percent 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 labor from overseas. Nevertheless, a large influx of outsiders into a relatively homogenous nation has triggered some disquiet.
Speaking at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan on July 3, Kamiya said his party was not in favor 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 on Friday said the party was aiming for more than triple its original target of six seats: “With 20 seats, we can submit bills with budgets. Please give us 20 seats.”
As well as spelling the end of Ishiba’s premiership, Cucek said that a crushing electoral defeat combined with the desertion of conservative voters to Sanseito would be a “shake-up that itself will destabilize the LDP,” potentially ending the hegemony it has had since its founding in 1955.
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