07-07-2025
Tokyo-born Czech nationalist revives Czexit ahead of national election
PRAGUE – Tomio Okamura, the Tokyo-born leader of Czechia's far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) party, is making a political comeback before the October general election – and bringing the idea of a Czech EU exit back with him.
Okamura has built a political career on hard-line nationalist positions, including proposals to ban the promotion of Islam , a strict anti-immigration agenda , and increasingly vocal criticism of Ukraine and the presence of Ukrainian refugees in Czechia.
He has dismissed the EU's Green Deal as a ' crazy neo-Marxist plan ' and his party, SPD, continues to demand referendums on Czech membership in both the EU and NATO – ideas firmly rejected by mainstream parties.
His position on a potential EU referendum is clear: "I would vote for the Czech Republic to leave the EU," he said .
A recent STEM poll for CNN Prima News places SPD at 13%, third behind the populist ANO (32%) and the centre-right Spolu (21%). The rebound follows SPD's strategic merger with three smaller nationalist groups, forming a more unified anti-EU front.
Okamura's nationalism stands in sharp contrast with his own personal biography . Born to a Czech mother and a Japanese-Korean father, he spent part of his childhood in Tokyo before moving to Prague.
Before entering politics, he ran a series of tourism-related businesses and was a partner in a now-bankrupt travel agency, which let customers send toys abroad to be photographed in popular tourist locations .
He later became vice-president and spokesperson for the Association of Czech Travel Agencies. In 2008, he was even appointed Czech ambassador for the EU's European Year of Intercultural Dialogue.
SPD is his second political project, following a bitter split from his previous party, Dawn of Direct Democracy, in 2015.
Among Okamura's fiercest critics are members of his own family. His older brother, Hayato Okamura, is an MP for the pro-EU Christian Democrats and accuses his brother of 'objectively supporting the Kremlin.'
The youngest sibling, architect Osamu Okamura, ran for the Greens in the 2024 European elections, vowing to 'strengthen active EU membership.'
Although the brothers have refrained from personal attacks in public, their ideological divisions are profound. In 2024, Hayato apologised in parliament for what he described as his brother's 'Ukrainophobia."
Okamura has also been entangled in multiple legal disputes, mainly with media outlets and NGOs over alleged defamation – most of which he has lost.
In early 2025, he was stripped of parliamentary immunity to face potential criminal charges related to an allegedly racially charged campaign in the 2024 European elections.
Okamura is unlikely to achieve his long-held goal of taking Czechia out of the EU anytime soon.
The populist party ANO, the frontrunner, shows no interest in Czexit, and the current centre-right government remains firmly pro-European.
But with several smaller factions hovering near the 5% threshold to enter parliament, the SPD could emerge as ANO's only viable coalition ally, giving Okamura leverage to pull Czech politics further toward the nationalist, anti-EU fringe.
(de, mm)
