With his statements punishing immigration, “the elite” and “globalism”, in unison with western populist movements, the electoral advance of Petit Party Sanseeito shakes traditional parties in Japan.
During the senatorial elections on Sunday, July 20, the government’s coalition led by the Democratic Liberal Party (PLD, conservative law) of Prime Minister Shigeru ishiba suffered a bitter debacle, losing its majority in the upper room.
Sanseito, founded five years ago with the slogan “The Japanese First”, however, benefited from a strong thrust with 14 seats won during the elections for the renewal of half of the upper room. Now controls 15 seats in the Senate, against two before.
His program is directly inspired by the Maga Movement (“Make America Great Again”) by US President Donald Trump, the German extreme right -wing party AFD and the British Reform Party of Nigel Farage.
He advocates “stricter rules and limitations” in immigration, opposes “globalism” and “radical” gender policies, calls into question the vaccination and decarbonation strategies, but advocates for agriculture without pesticides.
Sanseito, who prospered on YouTube, “will return power to people,” said its leader Sohei Kamiya, 47, former teacher and supermarket manager
Very few foreigners in Japan
It is true that the surveys place an immigration behind inflation and economy in voters’ concerns, and if Japan in total demographic aging is cruelly immigration, the proportion of foreigners remains low (2.8% of the population).
But for Sanseito, the influx of newcomers is responsible for all evils, from crime to the increase in real estate, including the steering wheel.
“They are welcome as tourists, but if they always welcome more foreigners calling them cheap labor, Japanese wages will not increase,” said Sohei Kamiya during a campaign event. Before guaranteeing “never called to expel foreigners.”
The appearance of Sanseeito, however, intervenes in the context of the increase in the false xenophobic information online. Some messages mistakenly stated that foreigners left almost $ 3 billion in unpaid medical invoices every year, or that the number of Chinese residents who enjoy social assistance had doubled in five years.
“Manipulations”
“When foreigners go to university, the government subsidizes them. But when we were students, they were all very indebted,” he laments. Around them, activists with orange t -shirts distributed brochures “stop destroying Japan.”
Dopped to artificial intelligence translations, Russian automated accounts are responsible for “large -scale information manipulations”, says in its blog Ichiro Yamamoto, the Institute of Information and Information Systems of Japan in Japan in Japan.
During his campaign, Sanseito was forced to deny having received the support from Moscow.
However, Sohei Kamiya is distinguished by his indulgent tone with respect to Moscow: “Russian military invasion (from Ukraine) was, of course, something bad, but the forces in the United States pushed Russia to act in this way,” Kamiya told AFP, while defending himself from being “pro-rusia.”
At the same time, given the popularity of the Sanseeito, the other parts also took the issue of immigration during the campaign.
The weakened ruling party
The PLD of Prime Minister ishiba has proclaimed the objective of reaching “clandestine zero foreign”, promising the strengthening of the immigration management system and the state of the residents.
Alarmed, eight NGOs have published a joint statement, backed from more than 1,000 organizations, to denounce “the rapid progression of xenophobia.”
Until now, the character “Catch-ALL” of the PLD, in the almost discontinuous power since World War II, had contained in Japan’s populist temptation, observes Hidehiro Yamamoto, a professor of sociology at the University of Tsukuba. “The PLD was in charge of the urban areas of the low middle class, the farmers, the SMEs …”.
It is true that the PLD is undermined by the corruption scandals and the strong inflation that feeds the dissatisfaction and promotes Sanseeito. “But he cannot maintain popular support by trusting only in a feeling of passenger’s mind,” warns Mr. Yamamoto.
Source: BFM TV
