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The Mainichi
13 hours ago
- Politics
- The Mainichi
'Awakened conservatives' in Japan targeting foreigners
OITA (Kyodo) -- As the number of inbound tourists to Japan skyrockets while the population shrinks, the country is seeing a revival of right-wing populist parties with extremist positions on immigration controls as a key plank in their conservative ideology. On social media, ultranationalist Japanese have long targeted foreigners with hate speech. In Japanese cities, ultranationalist groups blast hate speech through loudspeakers. Now, new political parties are bringing similar messaging to mainstream politics and drawing support from the long-dominant conservative Liberal Democratic Party. Like Sanseito, a right-wing anti-immigration party founded in 2020, the ultranationalist Conservative Party of Japan led by novelist Naoki Hyakuta has been edging toward a harder line. In last year's lower house election, the CPJ won three seats despite being in existence for only about a year. In 2014, Hyakuta, then a governor for public broadcaster NHK, asserted the Nanjing massacre never happened. He faced a torrent of criticism last year after suggesting that to improve Japan's birth rate, women over 30 should be subjected to hysterectomies and that single women over 25 be prohibited from getting married. That hasn't stopped some women from backing his party. A 46-year-old housewife from Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, who supports the CPJ, started watching videos featuring Hyakuta and CPJ Secretary General Kaori Arimoto on YouTube. Their words hit home. She especially identified with the party's stance toward foreign workers living in Japan. She says she is afraid when she sees foreigners hanging out in the local park, especially at night. "It's not like they have done anything to hurt me, but I'm too scared to walk at night. I used to do some walking, but I don't like to do it alone," the woman said with a downcast look. Asked not to be named, she said the "quantity and quality" of foreigners in Japan should be guaranteed. "If it is a foreigner who really cares about Japan, I welcome them," she said before adding, "They call it coexistence, but I think it will change the culture and atmosphere of the country." She had voted for the LDP but had never really thought about what conservatism meant. She now considers herself an "awakened conservative." The CPJ has been grabbing votes from the LDP, says Yoichi Shimada, a CPJ Diet member who was first elected to the House of Representatives last year. Shimada points to the ouster of lawmakers in former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's LDP faction, the largest in the party until its dissolution. It included politicians implicated in a slush fund scandal who were not endorsed by the party in the Oct. 27 lower house poll. That led to a reduction in Abe's strong nationalistic influence, and conservative voters have been alienated from the LDP, currently led by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba who is widely considered a moderate, he suggested. "Mr. Abe said that the LDP would be finished if it lost 30 percent of its principled conservatives, Shimada said. "It's just as he warned." Another former LDP supporter who has turned to the CPJ is a 63-year-old self-employed woman from Kobe. She appreciated the close ties Abe built with U.S. President Donald Trump and Abe's tough diplomatic stance toward China and South Korea. She was stunned when Abe was assassinated in 2022. "I was really worried about where Japan was heading after that," she recalled. The woman, who also remained anonymous, said she feels uplifted when she hears Japan's national anthem, "Kimigayo." "It's in my blood. Always has been. If I was told to go on a suicide mission, I would go," she said. She believes Japan is rapidly collapsing under an influx of foreign workers and foreign acquisition of Japanese land. This led her to support the CPJ. Some observers suggest emerging right-wing populist parties have achieved a breakthrough in national politics. But Masaki Hata, an associate professor of political psychology at Osaka University of Economics, is uncomfortable with that term. "Sanseito has not improved its voter share since the 2022 upper house election," Hata said. "When people say 'breakthrough,' I would like to say, 'let's look at the structure of the elections more closely.'" Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications data show Sanseito garnered 3.33 percent of the votes in the proportional representation constituency in the 2022 upper house election. It netted 3.43 percent in the national proportional vote in last year's lower house election, according to preliminary results. Hata dismisses support for the CPJ as mainly backing for Takashi Kawamura, one of the party's leaders and former Nagoya mayor, but admits the LDP slush fund scandal helped Sanseito and the CPJ gain clout. According to exit polls by Kyodo News, about 2 percent of LDP supporters flowed to each of the two parties. While these new right-wing parties share anti-foreigner messaging with counterparts in Europe, especially France's National Rally led by Marine Le Pen, Hata believes their growth will be limited in Japan, which has a single-seat constituency system in which one candidate is elected from each electoral district. He emphasized, however, that not only Sanseito and the CPJ but conservative parties such as the Democratic Party for the People and the Japan Innovation Party have portrayed foreigners as enemies to gain support. "This is not something that is readily reported in the media. We have to sound the alarm on this," he said. (By Takara Sato)
Kyodo News
16 hours ago
- Politics
- Kyodo News
FEATURE: "Awakened conservatives" in Japan targeting foreigners
By Takara Sato, KYODO NEWS - Jun 26, 2025 - 11:27 | All, Japan, Feature As the number of inbound tourists to Japan skyrockets while the population shrinks, the country is seeing a revival of right-wing populist parties with extremist positions on immigration controls as a key plank in their conservative ideology. On social media, ultranationalist Japanese have long targeted foreigners with hate speech. In Japanese cities, ultranationalist groups blast hate speech through loudspeakers. Now, new political parties are bringing similar messaging to mainstream politics and drawing support from the long-dominant conservative Liberal Democratic Party. Like Sanseito, a right-wing anti-immigration party founded in 2020, the ultranationalist Conservative Party of Japan led by novelist Naoki Hyakuta has been edging toward a harder line. In last year's lower house election, the CPJ won three seats despite being in existence for only about a year. In 2014, Hyakuta, then a governor for public broadcaster NHK, asserted the Nanjing massacre never happened. He faced a torrent of criticism last year after suggesting that to improve Japan's birth rate, women over 30 should be subjected to hysterectomies and that single women over 25 be prohibited from getting married. That hasn't stopped some women from backing his party. A 46-year-old housewife from Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, who supports the CPJ, started watching videos featuring Hyakuta and CPJ Secretary General Kaori Arimoto on YouTube. Their words hit home. She especially identified with the party's stance toward foreign workers living in Japan. She says she is afraid when she sees foreigners hanging out in the local park, especially at night. "It's not like they have done anything to hurt me, but I'm too scared to walk at night. I used to do some walking, but I don't like to do it alone," the woman said with a downcast look. Asked not to be named, she said the "quantity and quality" of foreigners in Japan should be guaranteed. "If it is a foreigner who really cares about Japan, I welcome them," she said before adding, "They call it coexistence, but I think it will change the culture and atmosphere of the country." She had voted for the LDP but had never really thought about what conservatism meant. She now considers herself an "awakened conservative." The CPJ has been grabbing votes from the LDP, says Yoichi Shimada, a CPJ Diet member who was first elected to the House of Representatives last year. Shimada points to the ouster of lawmakers in former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's LDP faction, the largest in the party until its dissolution. It included politicians implicated in a slush fund scandal who were not endorsed by the party in the Oct. 27 lower house poll. That led to a reduction in Abe's strong nationalistic influence, and conservative voters have been alienated from the LDP, currently led by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba who is widely considered a moderate, he suggested. "Mr. Abe said that the LDP would be finished if it lost 30 percent of its principled conservatives, Shimada said. "It's just as he warned." Another former LDP supporter who has turned to the CPJ is a 63-year-old self-employed woman from Kobe. She appreciated the close ties Abe built with U.S. President Donald Trump and Abe's tough diplomatic stance toward China and South Korea. She was stunned when Abe was assassinated in 2022. "I was really worried about where Japan was heading after that," she recalled. The woman, who also remained anonymous, said she feels uplifted when she hears Japan's national anthem, "Kimigayo." "It's in my blood. Always has been. If I was told to go on a suicide mission, I would go," she said. She believes Japan is rapidly collapsing under an influx of foreign workers and foreign acquisition of Japanese land. This led her to support the CPJ. Some observers suggest emerging right-wing populist parties have achieved a breakthrough in national politics. But Masaki Hata, an associate professor of political psychology at Osaka University of Economics, is uncomfortable with that term. "Sanseito has not improved its voter share since the 2022 upper house election," Hata said. "When people say 'breakthrough,' I would like to say, 'let's look at the structure of the elections more closely.'" Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications data show Sanseito garnered 3.33 percent of the votes in the proportional representation constituency in the 2022 upper house election. It netted 3.43 percent in the national proportional vote in last year's lower house election, according to preliminary results. Hata dismisses support for the CPJ as mainly backing for Takashi Kawamura, one of the party's leaders and former Nagoya mayor, but admits the LDP slush fund scandal helped Sanseito and the CPJ gain clout. According to exit polls by Kyodo News, about 2 percent of LDP supporters flowed to each of the two parties. While these new right-wing parties share anti-foreigner messaging with counterparts in Europe, especially France's National Rally led by Marine Le Pen, Hata believes their growth will be limited in Japan, which has a single-seat constituency system in which one candidate is elected from each electoral district. He emphasized, however, that not only Sanseito and the CPJ but conservative parties such as the Democratic Party for the People and the Japan Innovation Party have portrayed foreigners as enemies to gain support. "This is not something that is readily reported in the media. We have to sound the alarm on this," he said. Related articles: FEATURE: Younger Japanese drawn to anti-immigrant populist Sanseito
Japan Today
2 days ago
- Politics
- Japan Today
'Awakened conservatives' in Japan targeting foreigners
By Takara Sato As the number of inbound tourists to Japan skyrockets while the population shrinks, the country is seeing a revival of right-wing populist parties with extremist positions on immigration controls as a key plank in their conservative ideology. On social media, ultranationalist Japanese have long targeted foreigners with hate speech. In Japanese cities, ultranationalist groups blast hate speech through loudspeakers. Now, new political parties are bringing similar messaging to mainstream politics and drawing support from the long-dominant conservative Liberal Democratic Party. Like Sanseito, a right-wing anti-immigration party founded in 2020, the ultranationalist Conservative Party of Japan led by novelist Naoki Hyakuta has been edging toward a harder line. In last year's lower house election, the CPJ won three seats despite being in existence for only about a year. In 2014, Hyakuta, then a governor for public broadcaster NHK, asserted the Nanjing massacre never happened. He faced a torrent of criticism last year after suggesting that to improve Japan's birthrate, women over 30 should be subjected to hysterectomies and that single women over 25 be prohibited from getting married. That hasn't stopped some women from backing his party. A 46-year-old housewife from Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, who supports the CPJ, started watching videos featuring Hyakuta and CPJ Secretary General Kaori Arimoto on YouTube. Their words hit home. She especially identified with the party's stance toward foreign workers living in Japan. She says she is afraid when she sees foreigners hanging out in the local park, especially at night. "It's not like they have done anything to hurt me, but I'm too scared to walk at night. I used to do some walking, but I don't like to do it alone," the woman said with a downcast look. Asked not to be named, she said the "quantity and quality" of foreigners in Japan should be guaranteed. "If it is a foreigner who really cares about Japan, I welcome them," she said before adding, "They call it coexistence, but I think it will change the culture and atmosphere of the country." She had voted for the LDP but had never really thought about what conservatism meant. She now considers herself an "awakened conservative." The CPJ has been grabbing votes from the LDP, says Yoichi Shimada, a CPJ Diet member who was first elected to the House of Representatives last year. Shimada points to the ouster of lawmakers in former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's LDP faction, the largest in the party until its dissolution. It included politicians implicated in a slush fund scandal who were not endorsed by the party in the Oct 27 lower house poll. That led to a reduction in Abe's strong nationalistic influence, and conservative voters have been alienated from the LDP, currently led by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba who is widely considered a moderate, he suggested. "Mr Abe said that the LDP would be finished if it lost 30 percent of its principled conservatives, Shimada said. "It's just as he warned." Another former LDP supporter who has turned to the CPJ is a 63-year-old self-employed woman from Kobe. She appreciated the close ties Abe built with U.S. President Donald Trump and Abe's tough diplomatic stance toward China and South Korea. She was stunned when Abe was assassinated in 2022. "I was really worried about where Japan was heading after that," she recalled. The woman, who also remained anonymous, said she feels uplifted when she hears Japan's national anthem, "Kimigayo." "It's in my blood. Always has been. If I was told to go on a suicide mission, I would go," she said. She believes Japan is rapidly collapsing under an influx of foreign workers and foreign acquisition of Japanese land. This led her to support the CPJ. Some observers suggest emerging right-wing populist parties have achieved a breakthrough in national politics. But Masaki Hata, an associate professor of political psychology at Osaka University of Economics, is uncomfortable with that term. "Sanseito has not improved its voter share since the 2022 upper house election," Hata said. "When people say 'breakthrough,' I would like to say, 'let's look at the structure of the elections more closely.'" Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications data show Sanseito garnered 3.33 percent of the votes in the proportional representation constituency in the 2022 upper house election. It netted 3.43 percent in the national proportional vote in last year's lower house election, according to preliminary results. Hata dismisses support for the CPJ as mainly backing for Takashi Kawamura, one of the party's leaders and former Nagoya mayor, but admits the LDP slush fund scandal helped Sanseito and the CPJ gain clout. According to exit polls by Kyodo News, about 2 percent of LDP supporters flowed to each of the two parties. While these new right-wing parties share anti-foreigner messaging with counterparts in Europe, especially France's National Rally led by Marine Le Pen, Hata believes their growth will be limited in Japan, which has a single-seat constituency system in which one candidate is elected from each electoral district. He emphasized, however, that not only Sanseito and the CPJ but conservative parties such as the Democratic Party for the People and the Japan Innovation Party have portrayed foreigners as enemies to gain support. "This is not something that is readily reported in the media. We have to sound the alarm on this," he said. © KYODO
Kyodo News
2 days ago
- Politics
- Kyodo News
FEATURE: "Awakened conservatives" in Japan targeting foreigners
By Takara Sato, KYODO NEWS - 2 minutes ago - 11:27 | All, Japan, Feature As the number of inbound tourists to Japan skyrockets while the population shrinks, the country is seeing a revival of right-wing populist parties with extremist positions on immigration controls as a key plank in their conservative ideology. On social media, ultranationalist Japanese have long targeted foreigners with hate speech. In Japanese cities, ultranationalist groups blast hate speech through loudspeakers. Now, new political parties are bringing similar messaging to mainstream politics and drawing support from the long-dominant conservative Liberal Democratic Party. Like Sanseito, a right-wing anti-immigration party founded in 2020, the ultranationalist Conservative Party of Japan led by novelist Naoki Hyakuta has been edging toward a harder line. In last year's lower house election, the CPJ won three seats despite being in existence for only about a year. In 2014, Hyakuta, then a governor for public broadcaster NHK, asserted the Nanjing massacre never happened. He faced a torrent of criticism last year after suggesting that to improve Japan's birth rate, women over 30 should be subjected to hysterectomies and that single women over 25 be prohibited from getting married. That hasn't stopped some women from backing his party. A 46-year-old housewife from Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, who supports the CPJ, started watching videos featuring Hyakuta and CPJ Secretary General Kaori Arimoto on YouTube. Their words hit home. She especially identified with the party's stance toward foreign workers living in Japan. She says she is afraid when she sees foreigners hanging out in the local park, especially at night. "It's not like they have done anything to hurt me, but I'm too scared to walk at night. I used to do some walking, but I don't like to do it alone," the woman said with a downcast look. Asked not to be named, she said the "quantity and quality" of foreigners in Japan should be guaranteed. "If it is a foreigner who really cares about Japan, I welcome them," she said before adding, "They call it coexistence, but I think it will change the culture and atmosphere of the country." She had voted for the LDP but had never really thought about what conservatism meant. She now considers herself an "awakened conservative." The CPJ has been grabbing votes from the LDP, says Yoichi Shimada, a CPJ Diet member who was first elected to the House of Representatives last year. Shimada points to the ouster of lawmakers in former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's LDP faction, the largest in the party until its dissolution. It included politicians implicated in a slush fund scandal who were not endorsed by the party in the Oct. 27 lower house poll. That led to a reduction in Abe's strong nationalistic influence, and conservative voters have been alienated from the LDP, currently led by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba who is widely considered a moderate, he suggested. "Mr. Abe said that the LDP would be finished if it lost 30 percent of its principled conservatives, Shimada said. "It's just as he warned." Another former LDP supporter who has turned to the CPJ is a 63-year-old self-employed woman from Kobe. She appreciated the close ties Abe built with U.S. President Donald Trump and Abe's tough diplomatic stance toward China and South Korea. She was stunned when Abe was assassinated in 2022. "I was really worried about where Japan was heading after that," she recalled. The woman, who also remained anonymous, said she feels uplifted when she hears Japan's national anthem, "Kimigayo." "It's in my blood. Always has been. If I was told to go on a suicide mission, I would go," she said. She believes Japan is rapidly collapsing under an influx of foreign workers and foreign acquisition of Japanese land. This led her to support the CPJ. Some observers suggest emerging right-wing populist parties have achieved a breakthrough in national politics. But Masaki Hata, an associate professor of political psychology at Osaka University of Economics, is uncomfortable with that term. "Sanseito has not improved its voter share since the 2022 upper house election," Hata said. "When people say 'breakthrough,' I would like to say, 'let's look at the structure of the elections more closely.'" Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications data show Sanseito garnered 3.33 percent of the votes in the proportional representation constituency in the 2022 upper house election. It netted 3.43 percent in the national proportional vote in last year's lower house election, according to preliminary results. Hata dismisses support for the CPJ as mainly backing for Takashi Kawamura, one of the party's leaders and former Nagoya mayor, but admits the LDP slush fund scandal helped Sanseito and the CPJ gain clout. According to exit polls by Kyodo News, about 2 percent of LDP supporters flowed to each of the two parties. While these new right-wing parties share anti-foreigner messaging with counterparts in Europe, especially France's National Rally led by Marine Le Pen, Hata believes their growth will be limited in Japan, which has a single-seat constituency system in which one candidate is elected from each electoral district. He emphasized, however, that not only Sanseito and the CPJ but conservative parties such as the Democratic Party for the People and the Japan Innovation Party have portrayed foreigners as enemies to gain support. "This is not something that is readily reported in the media. We have to sound the alarm on this," he said. Related articles: FEATURE: Younger Japanese drawn to anti-immigrant populist Sanseito
Libya Review
7 days ago
- Libya Review
73% of Libyan Women Journalists Report Online Violence
Libyan journalists participating in a recent workshop organized in coordination with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) have shared personal accounts of the violence and harassment they face, both online and in real life. The workshop, held as part of the 'Baseera' program launched by the UN Mission, gathered 25 journalists and focused on online abuse, understanding digital threats, and best practices for managing or responding to harassment in digital spaces. Ella Stapley, a representative from CPJ who led the training, noted that the issue is global. 'I have yet to encounter a country where online abuse doesn't occur,' she said, highlighting that the most common forms include spam messages and doxing (publishing personal information). She emphasized that women are often disproportionately targeted. The CPJ discussed the underlying causes of harassment, explaining that perpetrators often aim to disrupt narratives or prevent journalists from investigating certain issues. Journalists, by working in the public space, are inherently more exposed to such threats. 'Many journalists have taken no steps to protect themselves digitally,' Stapley warned. She introduced CPJ's digital risk assessment models, designed to help media professionals evaluate threats before undertaking assignments. She added that harassment can directly impact freedom of expression, silencing journalists and leading to a rise in misinformation and public distrust. The CPJ underscored that female journalists face even more harassment than their male counterparts, referencing a major three-year global study by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), supported by UNESCO. Key findings from the study include: 73% of women journalists surveyed experienced online violence. 25% reported threats of physical violence, while 18% received threats of sexual violence. 20% said online abuse escalated into offline incidents. 26% reported psychological impact as the most common consequence. 12% sought medical or psychological support. 11% took leave from work due to the abuse. Nearly 48% were harassed via unwanted private messages. Participants also expressed growing concerns about the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in enabling online harassment. They warned that AI tools could be exploited to scrape the internet and retrieve outdated or inaccurate information that could be weaponized. 'AI can accelerate harassment by making it easier for abusers to find personal data,' Stapley explained. 'Removing such information from the source is essential, though even that may not be enough.' She advised journalists to proactively manage what information they share online as a first line of defense. The Baseera program will continue to hold additional sessions in July, focusing on online harassment and digital safety. Journalists and media professionals are encouraged to register for upcoming workshops aimed at improving digital resilience in hostile environments. Tags: ICFJJournalistslibyaunesco
