Will Japan's anti-immigrant far-right parties win more votes in key election?
While candidates from across the political spectrum in Japan campaign on familiar issues such as inflation, jobs and defence, a surge in anti-immigrant messaging has also reframed the national conversation ahead of the House of Councillors election on Sunday.
The shift is being driven by the rise of ultraconservative groups like Sanseito, a party founded in 2020, which is polling fourth in opinion surveys among the 10 parties contesting the election. While Sanseito's support remains modest – just 5.9 per cent according to a July 11 NHK poll – more than 33 per cent of voters say they are still undecided.
With the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) struggling to rebound from a string of scandals and polling at just 24 per cent, political analysts say the election could produce a hung result, forcing the LDP to negotiate with smaller parties to retain power.
That may give hardline groups such as Sanseito or other right-leaning contenders – the Conservative Party of Japan (CPJ), the Japan Innovation Party (Ishin), or the Democratic Party for the People (DPFP) – the leverage to demand a role in government or even a cabinet seat, according to analysts.
Hiromichi Moteki, a conservative historian who lives in Tokyo, used to be a supporter of the LDP but has grown disillusioned by its present leadership, dismissing Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba as 'hopeless'.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
7 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
China could become a high-income country this year, but can it stay one?
There seems to be a never-ending amount of scholarship and commentary on how China can escape the middle-income trap. It moved from low-income to lower-middle-income status in 2001, then to upper-middle-income status in 2010. However, China's next transition, to high-income status and joining the ranks of the club of developed countries, is much more difficult. While the jury is still out on exactly when it might happen, it is possible that 2025 is the year China becomes a high-income country . The data points to it passing that threshold this year, but the question remains whether it will address the structural challenges that could push it back down to middle-income status. It is important to define what economists mean by the middle-income trap . According to the China 2030 Report, jointly issued by the World Bank and China in 2013, only 13 out of 101 middle-income countries (classified by gross domestic product per capita) made the transition to high-income status between 1960 and 2008. The reason so few countries have been able to make the transition is the difficulty in achieving both the structural transformation and the technological and industrial upgrading needed. As economies and wages grow, the things these economies produce must advance as well. Countries that continue to make rather simple products while their wages continue to grow put themselves in an increasingly uncompetitive position in the global economy. This makes industrial and technological upgrading a major challenge that middle-income countries must overcome. If countries wish to continue developing and avoid the middle-income trap , the structure of the economy and the institutions that govern it must transform to meet the new reality created as economies and industries mature. When economies are poor and productive forces are yet to be fully cultivated, economic growth can solve most of their problems as developing countries still have the ability to grow rapidly.
South China Morning Post
7 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong slams Western countries over criticism of bounties for second straight day
The Hong Kong government has hit out at 'irresponsible remarks' by Western countries for the second straight day following its decision to pursue overseas-based activists for alleged national security violations related to a group called 'Hong Kong Parliament'. Advertisement Authorities said on Sunday that they strongly opposed and disapproved of 'smears with distorted facts' that had been communicated by officials and politicians from countries such as the US, Canada and Australia, as well as 'anti-China organisations'. 'Not only did such foreign government officials and politicians, as well as anti-China organisations, turn a blind eye to illegal acts of criminals, but also deliberately smeared and spread irresponsible remarks, in an attempt to mislead the public, about the measures and actions taken by the [Hong Kong government] in accordance with the law,' the government said. The statement followed a similar one issued a day earlier, which had slammed remarks made by UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, who had described the latest round of bounties as 'transnational repression'. Western governments and politicians have been voicing their criticism since the city's decision on Friday to place bounties on 15 activists and issue new arrest warrants for four more over their involvement in the 'Hong Kong Parliament', a group deemed subversive by authorities. Advertisement US Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the latest round of warrants issued for activists, including those based in his country, saying Washington would not tolerate 'transnational repression on US soil'. In Canada, Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand and Minister of Public Safety Gary Anandasangaree said in a joint statement that actions taken by Hong Kong 'threaten the sovereignty of Canada and security of the people in this country'.
South China Morning Post
8 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
5 men deported to eSwatini from US spark public outcry, protests
In the small African kingdom of eSwatini, the arrival of five men deported from the United States under Washington's aggressive anti-immigrant measures has sparked a rare wave of public dissent. The five nationals of Vietnam, Laos, Yemen, Cuba and Jamaica, were flown to Eswatini's administrative capital of Mbabane on July 16 on a US military plane and incarcerated after US authorities labelled them 'criminal illegal aliens'. The US Department of Homeland Security said the men were convicted of violent crimes 'so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back.' The government of eSwatini, formerly known as Swaziland, has confirmed their presence. But spokesman Thabile Mdluli said they would not stay permanently and 'will be repatriated in due course to their different countries.' That assurance, though, has not quelled a tide of questions and concerns that have risen within the kingdom about the operation.
