‘Make Japan Great Again' movement gains momentum as right-wing party rallies against immigration, gender policies

News.com.au

5 days ago

Japan has always revered quirky parts of US culture. First it was baseball, then it was rock music.
And now ... populist Trump-styled conservatism.
Rightâ€'wing firebrands like Javier Milei in Argenitna and Giorgia Meloni of Italy have made strong careers railing against 'elitism,' 'globalism' and immigration. It's part of a movement capitalising on widespread frustration with left-wing politics.
In all cases, mainstream parties were accused of virtueâ€'signalling by championing diversity and climate goals at the expense of working-class costs.
And now, a growing cohort in Japan is following suit.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's coalition lost its upperâ€'house majority, but out of that redux emerged Sanseito, the 'Japanese first' party.
Founded just five years ago, it surged from just two seats to 15 in one election, marking a massive shift in the political tendencies of the nation's 124 million citizens.
Sanseito's playbook mirrors the arcs of Trump's 'Make America Great Again,' Germany's AfD and Nigel Farage's Reform UK.
They call for tighter immigration controls, a pushback to 'globalism,' a rollback of 'radical' gender policies, and skepticism toward decarbonisation, vaccines, and pesticides.
Leader Sohei Kamiya, a 47-year-old former teacher and supermarket manager, pledges to 'bring power back to the people' and squeeze out what his party believes to be a deeply corrupt political system.
It's a line that has worked exceptionally well throughout history, especially when targeting audiences disillusioned with mainstream parties.
While the party is picking up speed, public polling paints a slightly different picture.
Immigrants in the island nation rank low on voters' worry lists. Inflation and employment prospects are more widely accepted as the biggest issues facing Japan.
The nation's immigration intake is tiny by developed-nation standards, but it hasn't stopped Sanseito from mining the all-too-familiar vein.
'Too many newcomers equals crime, rising housing costs, dangerous driving — and, critically, suppressed wages,' Kamiya says.
'It's fine if they visit as tourists, but if you take in more and more foreigners, saying they're cheap labour, then Japanese people's wages won't rise.
'We are not exclusionary. We have never called to drive out foreigners.'
Online fact-checkers have flagged claims propagated by the group's supporters, including ones accusing foreigners of racking up 'almost $3 billion of unpaid medical bills annually' or a doubling of Chinese welfare recipients in just half a decade.
Fact-checkers aside, it is clear there is a mounting exhaustion amongst the population, which has for decades endured a rigorous and demanding working culture based on sacrifice, only to feel as if their nation and their own future prospects are moving backwards.
Japan's disillusioned wageâ€'earners are fed up with stagnation, employment opportunities and rising costs. Many believe mainstream leftâ€'leaning parties prioritise gender agendas, climate policies or openâ€'borders moral posturing at the expense of ordinary households.
'They put into words what I had been thinking about but couldn't put into words for many years. When foreigners go to university, the Japanese government provides subsidies to them, but when we were going to university, everyone had huge debts,' a 44â€'yearâ€'old IT worker, locked into a precarious shortâ€'term contract, told AFP reporters.
Just like in the US, analysts from the Japan Institute of Law and Information Systems warn of Russian bot networks fuelling 'largeâ€'scale information manipulation,' aided by AIâ€'powered language translation.
Sanseito's campaign included proâ€'Russia interviews via Russian state media. Kamiya, however, claimed he's no Moscow puppet and publicly denounced the war in Ukraine.
'Russia's military invasion (of Ukraine) was of course bad, but there are forces in the United States that drove Russia into doing that,' he said.
But as Sanseito gained momentum, Ishiba's ruling LDP party quickly pivoted.
It declared a mission of 'zero illegal foreign nationals' and promised tighter residency enforcement.
Eight NGOs, backed by over 1,000 groups, protested that move, warning it strayed too close to xenophobia and that the argument that 'foreigners are prioritised' is totally unfounded'.
There has also been a significant resistance movement against the party, with demonstrators taking part in a 'protest rave against racism' ahead of the upper house election over the weekend.