The unique legacy of the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of challenging "globalism" and the subtle but pervasive political influence of the Chinese Communist Party is alive and well in an upstart populist party which got its start on YouTube during the Covid pandemic.
In his final speech before Sunday's election, Sohei Kamiya of the Sanseito Party proclaimed: "I am the leader of the party who will destroy the 80 year post war system, together we will fight against globalism!"
Sanseito's Trump-like "Japanese First" motto appeared to resonate with the public as the party won 14 seats in Japan’s upper house, according to public broadcaster NHK. For three years, the once-fringe opposition party held just one seat in Japan's 248-seat upper house.
"This time Japan’s conservative structure is not challenged by leftists and socialists but rather by a far-right party whose rise parallels that of conservatism in America and Europe," Donald Kirk noted in a July 21 analysis for The New York Sun.
"At the forefront is a party that few had heard of, even in Japan, until recently, the Sanseito, or Political Participation Party, led by a former supermarket manager, Sohei Kamiya, with a basic message that is rapidly gaining traction in a disillusioned electorate."
Sanseito ran on a platform in this past weekend's election which criticized the influx of foreigners, slammed rising taxes, and called for greater reverence, if not authority, for the emperor.
Related: China celebrated his assassination, but Abe’s legacy surged in Japan elections, July 10, 2022
The Sanseito won 14 of 126 seats up for grabs in the Diet while the conservative DPP, or Democratic Party for the People, won 17 seats — enough to make sure the old-time Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) failed to win a majority in the upper house even with the help of its long-time ally, the Buddhist-backed Komeito.
"The rise of the Sanseito was all the more impressive considering that it was founded less than five years ago, and its appeal is spreading among a populace wearying of LDP rule," Kirk noted.
Critics in Japan say Kamiya has shunted aside the intellectual heavyweights behind the party's appeal and that Sanseito benefited primarily from mounting frustration with the LDP and the growing populist appeal of conservative Japanese values.
“People are really disillusioned,” a Japanese housewife told the Sun. “They’re so fed up. People need something new. The LDP is corrupt to the core.”
Evans Revere, a former senior American diplomat in Tokyo and Seoul, told the Sun:
“Japan has now joined the rest of the G-7” — the group of seven leading capitalist powers — “in catching the disease all have been suffering from: the erosion of trust in government and institutions, the waning of commitment to long-standing democratic norms, fear of change, especially that induced by immigration, rising nationalism.”
Revere perceives “the erosion of trust and confidence in institutions” as fueling the rightward shift. “Japan’s democracy, like that of the U.S., is powerful and long-standing,” he says, but “it is not all-powerful and impregnable, and it has lost its confidence.” He sees “good reason” for Japanese citizens with “an abiding commitment to democracy and to classical liberal thinking to be nervous.” The “rules and norms,” he observes, “are all changing.”In Japan, change is seen as almost inevitable. “With the dust still settling after Sunday’s historic election, what is already clear is that Japan’s political equilibrium has shifted, and the parties that adapt fastest to the new rules of the game will shape the country’s future,” a special adviser on government relations at the Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies, Michael Bosack, writes. “For the LDP and its rivals alike, the era of predictable elections is over.”
Leader of Right Wing Populist Sanseitō Party Sohei Kamiya's final speech
"I am the leader of the party who will destroy the 80 year post war system, together we will fight against Globalism!" YES! 🇯🇵 pic.twitter.com/I2MhyhvL94 — 🇯🇵 Colonel Otaku Gatekeeper 🇯🇵 (@politicalawake) July 19, 2025
