Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya's xenophobic views, antisemitic remarks and emphasis on Japan’s ethnic purity have raised alarms.

Its leader is a former supermarket manager who created his political party on YouTube in the depths of the coronavirus pandemic and campaigned on the Trumpian message “Japanese First.”

A once fringe opposition party in Japan has become the fourth largest in parliament by pushing a nationalist "Japanese First" agenda.

Campaigning under the nationalist slogan “Japanese First,” the party capitalised on growing public frustration with immigration, inflation and the ruling coalition’s performance.View on euronews

The fringe far-right Sanseito party emerged as one of the biggest winners in Japan's upper house election, gaining support with warnings of a "silent invasion" of immigrants.

Japanese politician Sohei Kamiya is the founder and Secretary General of the far-right political party Sanseit . Kamiya has been serving as a member of the House of Councillors since 2022 through the Proportional Representation Block.

Populist ideals are gaining traction in Japan, spurred by right-wing politicians running rampant elsewhere railing against “elitism”, “globalism” and immigration.

The Sanseito party tapped into discontent over issues galvanizing voters worldwide: inflation, immigration and a political class dismissed as out of touch.

The loss on Sunday left the Liberal Democrats a minority party in both houses of Parliament, while two new nationalist parties surged.

Sanseito, a new far-right party with a charismatic leader, Sohei Kamiya, came up big in Japan's parliamentary election by running on an anti-immigration, nationalist platform under the slogan "Japanese First.