The Japanese populist Sohei Kamiya surprised many in the country when his Sanseitō party won 14 seats last week in the Japan elections.
Holding 15 seats of 248 in the upper house is not sufficient for the Kamiya party to submit legislation. Level data shows, however, the impact of Sanseitō with younger voters, because Kyodo News reported that more than 20% of voters from 18 to 40 voted for his party.
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The Japanese Sanseito party leader Sohei Kamiya poses with his legislators during the party in Tokyo on July 21, 2025, one day after the election of the Hogerhuis. (Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon)
Inspired by the leadership style of President Donald Trump, the rise of Kamiya is largely attributed to his social media -Savvy. He faltered his earliest followers through his opposition against “blanket mask mandates, massive PCR tests and vaccine requirements” during the COVID-19 Pandemie, Japan ahead reported.
Kamiya has also taken over a spin-off from Trump’s Maga motto, and proclaims “Japanese first” while his party promises to strengthen Japanese culture, birth rates and food atmosphere, while finding solutions for his dependence on immigration.
Gatling even said that many in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), who have 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 a teacher of English, “doesn’t seem to play.” Kamiya “has been raising his message for a while,” said Gatling.
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The Japanese Sanseito party leader Sohei Kamiya gives a speech during the party in Tokyo on July 21, 2025, one day after the election of the Hogerhuis. (Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon TPX images of the day/file photo)
Some critics have expressed special concern about what they call Kamiya’s anti-immigration position. However, immigration has become a most important issue for island nation. When former President Joe Biden Japan called ‘Xenophobe’ because he did not increase immigration in May 2024, Kamiya responded to social media. “It’s not that we are xenophobic, we are careful after seeing your failures,” said Kamiya. “You interfere too much in our internal matters.”
Gatling says categorizing the Japanese as Xenophobe “simply does not ring true.” He explained that the country has ‘one of the most amazing cultures in history’, formed by adopting Western culture and enriching it to create ‘a completely unique culture that has a huge attraction around the world’.
Gatling says that Kamiya strives for a return to traditional cultural values, while also reducing taxes and increases the self -supply of food, which is currently the lowest percentage of all organization for economic cooperation and developing countries with 38%.
President Donald Trump, on the right, shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on February 7, 2025. (Getty Images)
The rice trade would be crucial for this regulation, whereby Sanseitō would like to curb the import of our rice. Currently, the import of American rice will increase by 75%, thanks to a $ 550 billion trading deal President Donald Trump signed on July 22 with Japan.
Another possible friction point In the future, the wish of Sanseitō can be to change the farmers of the nation into employees in the public sector, gave Gatling. “The agricultural block is one of the most powerful in the LDP,” he explained. “I’m not sure how many farmers want to be employees in the public sector.”
Although he says it is too early to determine the future of Sanseitō in Japanese politics, Gatling said that Kamiya stated that he is not “interested in building a coalition government.” Gatling believes that the future of the party will depend on the preparations for later elections and demonstrates that “they have reasonable policy.”
Chang said that the victory of Sanseitō was a loss for the LDP, which he says “is on drift” since Abe’s retirement 2020 and the subsequent murder on 2022. The current Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba “is weak and impopular”, and the LDP is now “in the minority in both houses of the diet.” “Ishiba naturally catches the blame.”
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While the political waves leave Japan ‘Ruddelloos,’ said Chang ‘expects Sanseitō only to become stronger, which means that Japan will turn inside. All over the world have had enough of large foreign population that is not assimilated, so we should not surprise that Kamiya will become even more influence.
“Change takes place slowly in Japan until it all happens in one go. Japan is now about a full moment,” Chang said.
