Trump-inspired ‘Japanese first’ politician shakes up nation’s establishment

Japanese populist Sohei Kamiya stunned many in the country when his Sanseitō party won 14 seats in Japan’s Upper House elections last week.

“From supermarket manager to bright political star … populism has hit the shores of Japan like a tsunami,” Gatestone Institute senior fellow Gordon Chang told Fox News Digital about 47-year-old Kamiya’s surprise achievement. 

Holding 15 of 248 Upper House seats is not sufficient for Kamiya’s party to submit legislation. However, polling data shows Sanseitō’s impact with younger voters, as Kyodo News reported that more than 20% of voters from 18 to 40 voted for his party.

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Inspired by President Donald Trump’s leadership style, Kamiya’s rise has largely been attributed to his social media savvy. He snagged his earliest followers through his opposition to “blanket mask mandates, mass PCR testing, and vaccine requirements” during the COVID-19 pandemic, Japan Forward reported.

Kamiya has also adopted a spin-off of Trump’s MAGA motto, proclaiming “Japanese first” as his party promises to strengthen Japan’s culture, birth rates and food sufficiency, while finding solutions for its reliance on immigration. 

Though the Western media has characterized Kamiya as far-right, fringe or xenophobic, Lance Gatling, a principal at Nexial Research, Tokyo, told Fox News Digital that while Kamiya’s goals of “protecting Japan, growing Japan, and educating Japan” are “fairly populist,” they do not represent “a radical move towards the right wing.” 

In fact, Gatling said many in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has dominated Japanese politics for decades, “are more right-wing than Sanseitō.” Gatling described members of Kamiya’s party as “pretty reasonable.” 

Gaitlin said that Kamiya, formerly a reservist in the Self-Defense Forces and an English teacher, “doesn’t appear to be playing.” Kamiya “has been honing his message for some time,” Gatling said.

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Some critics have expressed particular concern over what they call Kamiya’s anti-immigration stance. Immigration, however, has become a chief issue for the island nation. When former President Joe Biden called Japan “xenophobic” for failing to increase immigration in May 2024, Kamiya responded on social media. “It’s not that we’re xenophobic, we are being cautious after seeing your failures,” Kamiya said. “You are meddling too much in our internal affairs.” 

Gatling says categorizing the Japanese as xenophobic “just doesn’t ring true.” He explained that the country has “one of the most astonishing cultures in history,” formed by adopting Western culture and enriching it to create “a completely unique culture that has tremendous appeal around the world.”

Gatling says Kamiya is aiming for a return to traditional cultural values, while also lowering taxes and increasing food self-sufficiency, which is currently the lowest rate of all Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development nations at 38%. 

The rice trade would be critical to this arrangement, with Sanseitō eager to curb imports of U.S. rice. At present, imports of U.S. rice are set to increase by 75%, thanks to a $550 billion trade deal President Donald Trump signed with Japan on July 22.

Another possible friction point in the future might be Sanseitō’s desire to turn the nation’s farmers into public sector employees, Gatling admitted. “The agriculture bloc is one of the most powerful in the LDP,” he explained. “I’m not sure how many of the farmers want to be public sector employees.”

While he says that it is too early to determine the future of Sanseitō in Japanese politics, Gatling said Kamiya has stated he is not “interested in building a coalition government.” Gatling believes the party’s future will hinge on preparations for subsequent elections and demonstrating that “they have reasonable policies.”

Chang said Sanseitō’s win was a loss for the LDP, which he says has “been adrift” since Abe’s 2020 resignation and subsequent 2022 assassination. Current Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba “is weak and unpopular,” and the LDP now finds itself “in the minority in both houses of the Diet for the first time since the party was formed in 1955,” Chang said. “Ishiba is naturally catching the blame.”

While the political waves leave Japan “rudderless,” Chang said to “expect Sanseitō to only get stronger, which means Japan will turn inward. Around the world, societies have had enough of large foreign populations that do not assimilate, so we should not be surprised that Kamiya will become even more influential.

“Change occurs slowly in Japan until it happens all at once. Japan is now on the verge of an all-at-once moment,” Chang said.