Sanseito touts 'Japanese First' rhetoric to gain support
Sanseito lawmakers themselves say the catchphrase is boosting the party's popularity.
"We aren't trying to badmouth foreigners. We aren't saying we should exclude foreigners.
'But we're saying, please don't let any more of them into Japan,' said former jazz singer Saya, a Sanseito candidate for Tokyo in the Upper House election, on Saturday at a public rally in Tsukiji Market, a tourist hotspot.
As many tourists passed by, more than 30 Sanseito supporters broke into applause and cheers in response to Saya's speech.
Sanseito, founded in 2020 by Upper House lawmaker Sohei Kamiya, aims to win six of the 125 seats up for grabs in the July 20 election. Currently, Sanseito has five seats in parliament — two in the Upper House and three in the Lower House — and three seats in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly.
A man in his 30s from Saitama at Saturday's Tsukiji Market rally said Sanseito's caution about COVID vaccines as well as the party's stance of prioritizing Japanese citizens resonated with him.
He took issue with what he described as preferential treatment accorded to foreign exchange students by the administration of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba when it comes to scholarships.
'The Ishiba Cabinet dishes out scholarships to foreign exchange students all the time. Not that (the Cabinet) doesn't give (scholarships) to Japanese but it isn't much,' he said.
In the fiscal 2025 budget, ¥21.9 billion ($152 million) was allocated for the education ministry's scholarship program for foreign exchange students while ¥653.2 billion was allocated for financial aid for Japanese students.
A man in his 50s from Yokohama expressed concern over 'the Chinese buying up a lot of land and real estate.'
'This is truly concerning. It's a grave situation that we need to fix,' he said.
Public support for Sanseito in June was 2.5%, up 1.6 percentage points from the previous month, according to a Jiji Press poll. Sanseito was the third most popular party, behind the governing Liberal Democratic Party and the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP), in Tokyo's 23 wards and other major cities.
In several other polls, Sanseito was the third most popular opposition party, trailing behind the CDP and the DPP.
'Sanseito's approval rating has been on the rise — and now it's surging. When I think to myself, what is behind this phenomenon? I believe that everybody, deep down, resonates with the Japanese First slogan. But if they say it out loud, they'll be called racists,' Sanseito Upper House lawmaker Mizuho Umemura said at a news conference on Monday. 'To me, (this phenomenon) is hope — the emergence of a political party that confidently stands for what people have kept to themselves.'
Umemura left Nippon Ishin no Kai in April after losing in a preliminary race to become a candidate of the party for the Upper House election. She joined Sanseito, which will field her for a proportional representation seat, Kamiya announced on Monday.
'It's true that I was also looking to run for the LDP or DPP too,' said Umemura.
With Umemura, Sanseito achieved all criteria to be recognized as an official political party — having at least five sitting lawmakers or 2% of votes in a previous parliamentary election.
Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya announces Upper House lawmaker Mizuho Umemura (right) joining his party in Tokyo on Monday. |
JIJI
Experts disagree that Sanseito's popularity surge is due to its Japanese First stance, arguing that a recent drop in public support for the DPP — it was 3.4% in June, down 2.3 percentage points from the previous month — was caused by its initial decision to field scandal-hit Lower House lawmaker Shiori Yamao in the Upper House election, which prompted conservative voters to shift their support to Sanseito despite the DPP later withdrawing her candidacy.
'(Sanseito) is saying that approval ratings are growing because of the Japanese First rhetoric, but the newcomers aren't supporting Sanseito policy-wise," said Masaki Hata, an associate professor of political science at Osaka University of Economics. "Their support is by default in a sense. Relatively speaking, it's further right than the DPP so they go to Sanseito. They won't reject Japanese First but they didn't go to Sanseito for it either.'
Like other parties, Sanseito's agenda includes tax cuts and cash handouts. But the party stands out for condemning Japan's acceptance of foreigners, which it says has gone 'too far.'
Sanseito vows to limit the number of foreigners in Japan — including specified skilled workers and tourists — and cap the proportion of foreign residents at 5% of the population in each municipality.
The party also pledges to make it more difficult for foreign nationals to be naturalized as citizens or obtain permanent residence, as well as ban naturalized citizens from running for public office.
Not all voters are showing up at Sanseito's rallies in support. Saya's team had to relocate after protesters showed up at a rally at Yoyogi-Hachiman Station on Saturday.
'I can't believe so many people knowingly vote for Sanseito, fully aware that it promotes discrimination,' said a 54-year-old woman from Tokyo's Setagaya Ward.
In her hands were posters that read 'There is no first or second to humankind,' and 'Japanese First is discrimination.'
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