The main takeaways from Sunday’s Tokyo municipal elections were the success of the combative city governor Yuriko Koike and the dismal showing of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Koike’s party, with the Trumpian name Tomin First no Kai (“Tokyoites First”), increased its seat count and will now dominate the assembly. The LDP will lick its wounds and prepare for the Upper House general election next month.

But perhaps the more interesting and consequential outcome of the Tokyo vote was the success of a relatively new party, Sanseito, which has been described as “far-Right” and “ultranationalist” — terms which invoke especially uncomfortable associations in Japan. Sanseito, which translates as the “Party of Do it Yourself!!”, gained three councillors and an impressive 117,000 votes. This, despite it being the party’s relative inexperience, not to mention the mainstream media’s evident disdain.

Sanseito was founded in 2020 during the period of Covid-19 restrictions as a niche party which initially focused on scepticism around both mask-wearing and the prospect of enforced vaccination. The start-up was repeatedly accused of spreading Covid misinformation, though the message was simply that masks — ubiquitous and practically compulsory in Japan — didn’t really work and that forced vaccination was unethical (a far from unreasonable idea in a country with a history of vaccine scandals).

The party won its first seat in the Upper House of the National Diet in 2022 and went on to win 100 seats in local assembly elections the following year. It followed this up with three seats in the 2024 Lower House general election. Sanseito now claims to have around 100,000 members and has fundraised more than even the largest and most established factions of the LDP. It has also proved adept at mobilising volunteers at election time and in using alternative media.

A bit like British upstart party Reform UK, which has expanded its reach and grown beyond its core message of immigration control, Sanseito has developed a broader philosophy and expanded manifesto. It is now a sort of anti-politics, anti-globalist movement — reactionary but with a New Age libertarian twist. It promises a reinvigorated country reconnected to its essential values with the Emperor “at its heart”, though it’s not clear what this means in practice.

If Sanseito reached power, the party claims it would overhaul the education system and implement a curriculum designed to teach students to love their country once more. It is in favour of rewriting the constitution, which bars Japan from taking unilateral military action. It is against same-sex marriage and opposed the LGBT Understanding Promotion Bill of 2023. It would place limits on foreign ownership of Japanese businesses. Quirkily, it also wants to promote organic food and has dabbled with policies associated with spirituality and healing.

This package seems to appeal particularly to the young. Analysis has shown that Sanseito draws much of its support nationally from a youth cohort tired of the ineffectual, corrupt and nepotistic political class, and disgusted by a succession of uninspiring leaders. To a young generation who spent some of what should have been their most exciting years masked and locked down on the orders of remote bureaucrats, Sanseito’s early anti-Covid restrictions stance was undeniably attractive.

Like Reform UK, Sanseito has aggressively exploited modern technology. Charismatic leader Sohei Kamiya massively boosted his profile through a YouTube channel, and it is essentially a digital party whose members can supposedly influence policy through an online platform. Those members pay high fees, justified by various benefits including access to exclusive online and in-person events and personalised messages. In a country where social isolation is endemic, the feeling of being a valued member of an increasingly popular club is a considerable draw.

The party undoubtedly has its sinister and amateurish side. There have been financial scandals and Kamiya has been accused of antisemitism for remarks about Japan selling out to “Jewish capital”. That would probably have finished his career in the UK, but in Japan’s still-small foreign community allows politicians to get away with xenophobic comments. Kamiya remains unrepentant.

Like in the UK, there is a feeling that Japan is at an inflection point with the traditional parties close to death. Young people especially are ready for something new, a movement uncontaminated by decades of decline. If Sanseito can continue to professionalise and eradicate its less savoury elements, Japan may find itself, like an increasing portion of the Western world, in the grip of Right-wing populism.

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Philip Patrick is a lecturer at a Tokyo university and a freelance journalist.

@Pbp19Philip

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