DEMOCRACY WATCHThe Rise of the Far-Right in Japan
Sohei Kamiya’s far-right populist Sanseito captured 14 seats (in addition to a previously existing seat) in the July 2025 elections to the House of Councilors, the Upper House of the Japanese Diet. The Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, along with its defining policy approaches and worldview, has found resonance among certain sections of the electorate in Japan.
The Japanese far-right has emerged as a radical challenger to the conservative socio-political landscape, long dominated by the incumbent Liberal Democratic Party.
(LDP). The electoral and populist support for Sohei Kamiya’s Sanseito represents the tangible outcome of multiple factors, including growing economic pressures, the transnationalization of far-right (MAGA) ideas across the Pacific, and socio-political mobilization through digital platforms. The far-right’s rise in Japan is neither unprecedented nor emerging in a vacuum. Instead, it has been enabled by a broader ecosystem and past precedents that created a fertile ground for its emergence through different avenues. This brief contextualizes the rise of Sanseito.
Digital Mobilization and Initial Breakthrough
Sanseito’s rise through YouTube in 2020 was initially facilitated by the lockdown measures imposed due to the pandemic and a worldwide gravitational shift towards social media platforms like X, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, amid increasing uncertainty, chaos, and an influx of information—credible and debunked by securing 2 per cent of vote share in the 2022 House of Councillors election, Sohei Kamiya broke through the minimum threshold requirements to emerge as a political stakeholder in Japan.
Sanseito increased its vote share to 14 seats in the 2025 elections to the Upper House by campaigning on the Japanese First (similar to the America First narrative promulgated by MAGA nationalists) narrative. At the core of its nationalistic fervor lay advocating the notion of protecting Japan’s unique cultural heritage by rolling back legislation such as the LGBT Understanding Promotion Act, 2023 and retaining welfare funds solely for ethnic Japanese. This is presented in benign packaging as one of its 10 Pillars for New-Nation Building,[i] whose ultimate objective is stated as ‘building a national identity that protects and nurtures Japan’s freedom, culture, and uniqueness’.
Economic Crises and Japanese Populism
Such ideas resonated in a country confronting multiple crises, including inflation and economic strain that grew more pronounced. Over the past nine months, i.e., since February 2025, for instance, the Japanese Yen has devalued against the USD by over 2.5 per cent.[ii] Meanwhile, expenses related to rice, a staple food (accounting for 50 per cent of the country’s inflation), have surged over the past few years. For example, rice available in supermarkets has skyrocketed to 4,235 Yen[iii] per 5 kilograms on average, marking at least a 50 per cent rise since 2023.
