TOKYO — Outdoors a prepare station close to Tokyo, tons of of individuals cheer as Sohei Kamiya, head of the surging nationalist get together Sanseito, criticizes Japan’s quickly rising international inhabitants.
As opponents, separated by uniformed police and bodyguards, accuse him of racism, Kamiya shouts again, saying he’s solely speaking widespread sense.
Sanseito, whereas nonetheless a minor get together, made large features in July’s parliamentary election, and Kamiya’s “Japanese First” platform of anti-globalism, anti-immigration and anti-liberalism is gaining broader traction forward of a ruling get together vote Saturday that may select the possible subsequent prime minister.
Anti-immigrant insurance policies, which permit populists to vent their dissatisfaction on simple targets, are interesting to extra Japanese as they wrestle with dwindling salaries, rising costs and bleak future outlooks.
“Many Japanese are annoyed by these issues, although we’re too reserved to talk out. Mr. Kamiya is spelling all of them out for us,” stated Kenzo Hagiya, a retiree within the viewers who stated the “foreigner drawback” is one among his greatest issues.
The populist surge comes as Japan, a historically insular nation that values conformity and uniformity, sees a report surge of foreigners wanted to bolster its shrinking workforce.
In September, indignant protests fueled by social media misinformation a couple of looming flood of African immigrants quashed a government-led alternate program between 4 Japanese municipalities and African nations.
Sohei Kamiya, chief of a surging nationalist get together Sanseito, speaks throughout an interview with the Related Press at his get together’s headquarter on Sept. 2, 2025, in Tokyo. Credit score: AP/Eugene Hoshiko
Even the governing get together, which has promoted international labor and tourism, now requires tighter restrictions on foreigners, however with out exhibiting how Japan, which has one of many world’s fastest-aging and fastest-dwindling populations, can economically keep afloat with out them.
Kamiya says his platform has nothing to do with racism
“We solely wish to defend the peaceable lives and public security of the Japanese,” he stated on the rally in Yokohama, a serious residential space for foreigners. Japanese folks tolerate foreigners who respect the “Japanese method,” however those that cling to their very own customs will not be accepted as a result of they intimidate, trigger stress and anger the Japanese, he stated.
Kamiya stated the federal government was permitting international employees into the nation solely to learn large Japanese companies.
“Why do foreigners come first when the Japanese are struggling to make ends meet and affected by concern?” Kamiya requested. “We’re simply saying the apparent in an apparent method. Attacking us for racial discrimination is fallacious.”
Japan’s Sanseito chief Sohei Kamiya speaks at election marketing campaign in Yokohama, close to Tokyo Japan, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. Credit score: AP/Mayuko Ono
Kamiya’s anti-immigrant message is gaining traction
All 5 candidates competing in Saturday’s governing Liberal Democratic Get together management vote to switch outgoing Shigeru Ishiba as prime minister are vowing harder measures on foreigners.
One of many favorites, former Financial Safety Minister Sanae Takaichi, a hardline ultra-conservative, was criticized for championing unconfirmed claims that international vacationers abused deer at a park in Nara, her hometown.
Takaichi later stated she needed to convey the rising sense of tension and anger amongst many Japanese about ”outrageous” foreigners.
Through the July election marketing campaign, far-right candidates insulted Japan’s about 2,000 Kurds, a lot of whom fled persecution in Turkey.
A Kurdish citizen, who escaped to Japan as a toddler after his father confronted arrest for complaining about navy hazing, stated he and his fellow Kurds have needed to take care of folks calling them criminals on social media.
Japan has a historical past of discrimination towards ethnic Koreans and Chinese language, courting from the colonialist period within the first half of the twentieth century.
A few of that discrimination persists at present, with insults and assaults focusing on Chinese language immigrants, traders and their companies.
Hoang Vinh Tien, 44, a Vietnamese resident who has lived in Japan for greater than 20 years, says foreigners are sometimes underpaid and face discrimination, together with in renting flats. He says he has labored exhausting to be accepted as a part of the group.
“As we hear about bother involving foreigners, I share the issues of the Japanese individuals who wish to defend Japan, and I help stricter measures for anybody from any nation, together with Vietnam,” Hoang stated.
Rising foreigner numbers, however not practically sufficient to bolster the financial system
Japan’s international inhabitants final yr hit a brand new excessive of greater than 3.7 million. That is solely about 3% of the nation’s inhabitants. Japan, which additionally promotes inbound tourism, goals to obtain 60 million guests in 2030, up from 50 million final yr.
The international workforce tripled over the previous decade to a report 2.3 million final yr, in keeping with Ministry of Well being, Labor and Welfare statistics. A rise of 300,000 from a yr earlier was twice the projected tempo. Many work in manufacturing, retail, farming and fishing.
Even because the international inhabitants surged, solely about 12,000 foreigners had been arrested final yr, regardless of alarmists’ claims that there can be a crimewave, Nationwide Police Company figures present.
The professional-business ruling Liberal Democratic Get together in 1993 launched a international trainee program and has since drastically expanded its scope in phases. However this system has been criticized as an exploitive try to make up for a declining home workforce. It will likely be renewed in 2027 with extra flexibility for employees and stricter oversight for employers.
Many Japanese view immigrants as low-cost labor who communicate little Japanese, enable their youngsters to drop out of faculty and dwell in high-crime communities, says Toshihiro Menju, a professor at Kansai College of Worldwide Research and an skilled on immigration insurance policies.
He says the unfairness stems from Japan’s “stealth immigration system” that accepts international labor as de facto immigrants however with out offering satisfactory help for them or a proof to the general public to assist foster acceptance.
A Sanseito supporter in her 50s echoed a few of these views however acknowledged that she has by no means personally encountered bother with foreigners.
In the meantime, Japan faces actual financial ache if it would not work out the immigration difficulty.
The nation will want thrice extra international employees, or a complete of 6.7 million folks, than it at present permits, by 2040 to realize 1.24% annual progress, in keeping with a 2022 Japan Worldwide Cooperation Company research. With out these employees, the Japanese financial system, together with the farming, fishing and repair sectors, will change into paralyzed, consultants say.
It’s unclear whether or not Japan can entice that many international employees sooner or later, as its dwindling salaries and lack of range makes it much less engaging.
A rising get together that is a part of a altering political panorama
Sanseito began in 2020 when Kamiya started attracting folks on YouTube and social media who had been discontent with standard events.
Kamiya, a former meeting member within the city of Suita, close to Osaka, centered on revisionist views of Japan’s trendy historical past, conspiracy theories, anti-vaccine concepts and spiritualism.
Kamiya stated he is “extraordinarily impressed by the anti-globalism insurance policies” of U.S. President Donald Trump, however not his model. He invited a conservative activist and Trump ally Charlie Kirk to Tokyo for talks days earlier than his assassinationhas been additionally connecting with far-right events such because the Various for Germany get together (AfD) and Britain’s Reform UK.
His precedence, he stated in an interview with The Related Press, is to additional broaden his help base, and he hopes to subject greater than 100 candidates in future elections.
