A far-right party in Japan is courting allies of Donald Trump as it builds on its recent electoral gains. Sanseito uprooted Japan’s political foundations when it gained 14 new seats in the House of Councillors election in July, “shattering the long-standing belief that modern Japan is immune to populism,” said the Anadolu news agency.
Hardline nationalist leader Sanae Takaichi just won the leadership race for Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, paving the way for a possible pact between her party and Sanseito. But MAGA-inspired Sanseito “faces a distinctly Japanese quandary of how to upend the status quo in a society that prizes politeness and consensus,” said Reuters.
Japan has “long prided itself on social harmony and relative political moderation, avoiding the deep partisan trenches of U.S. politics,” said the East Asia Forum, but the recent election “exposed a truth that can no longer be ignored”: The nation’s “divisions are real, complex and growing, and Sanseito has skillfully turned these fractures into political capital”.
The topic that most “excites” today’s populists is the “increasing number of foreigners in Japan — immigrants, workers and tourists,” said Project Syndicate. “Like Trump, Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya has stirred controversy with his remarks” on ethnic minorities, said Reuters. An outspoken critic of immigration, on one occasion he “used a slur against Japan’s ethnic Korean population — a comment for which he later apologized.”
But Sanseito members “are not Trump worshippers” and won’t push “wacky” policies like those embraced by the U.S. president, Kamiya told Reuters. The Japanese “value harmony and place an importance on getting broad, gradual consensus,” he said, adding: “I do, too.” | 
