The ruling class of Japan shook up by the rise of the populist with a Trump style message

Japanese populist Sohei Kamiya amazed many in the country when his group of Sanseeitō won 14 seats in the elections of the High Chamber of Japan last week.

“From the supermarket manager to Bright Political Star … Populism has struck the banks of Japan like a tsunami,” said Gordon Chang, senior of Gatestone Institute, to Fox News Digital about the surprise realization of Kamiya, 47.

Having 15 of the 248 seats in the upper chamber is not enough for Kamiya’s party to submit legislation. However, survey data show that the impact of Sanseeitō with young voters, because Kyodo News reported that more than 20% of voters aged 18 to 40 had voted for his party.

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The leader of the Party of Sanseito in Japan, Sohei Kamiya, posed with his legislators during the party gathering in Tokyo on July 21, 2025, one day after the elections of the upper Chamber. (Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon)

Inspired by the leadership style of President Donald Trump, the rise of Kamiya was largely attributed to his sense of social media. He hung his first disciples by his opposition to “coverage mask mandates, mass PCR tests and the requirements of vaccines” during the COVVI-19 pandemic, Japan reported.

Kamiya has also adopted a spin-off of Trump’s Mag’s motto, proclaiming “Japanese first” while his party promises to strengthen Japan culture, birth rate and food sufficiency, while finding solutions for his dependence on immigration.

Although the Western media characterized Kamiya as far right, fringes or xenophobic, launches Gatling, director of Nexial Research, Tokyo, told Fox News Digital that, even if Kamiya’s objectives to “protect Japan, Japan growth and education from Japan” are “quite populist”, they do not represent “a radical movement towards the right wing”.

In fact, Gatling said that many of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has dominated Japanese policy for decades, “are more right than Sanseeitō”. Gatling described the members of the Kamiya party as “quite reasonable”.

Gaitlin said Kamiya, formerly a reservist in the self -defense forces and an English teacher, “does not seem to play”. Kamiya “has managed his message for some time,” said Gatling.

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The leader of the Party of Sanseeito in Japan, Sohei Kamiya, delivered a speech during the party gathering in Tokyo on July 21, 2025, one day after the elections of the upper chamber. (Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon TPX Images of the photo of the day / File)

Some criticisms have expressed a particular concern to what they call Kamiya’s anti-immigration position. Immigration, however, has become a main problem for the island nation. When former president Joe Biden called Japan “xenophobic” for omitting immigration in May 2024, Kamiya responded on social networks. “It’s not that we are xenophobic, we are cautious after seeing your failures,” said Kamiya. “You get too much of our internal affairs.”

Gatling says that the categorization of Japanese as xenophobic “does not simply sound true”. He explained that the country has “one of the most amazing cultures in history”, trained by adopting Western culture and enriching it to create “a completely unique culture that has a huge attraction in the world”.

Gatling says that Kamiya aims to return to traditional cultural values, while lowering taxes and increasing food self -sufficiency, which is currently the lowest rate of all nations of 38%economic cooperation and development.

President Donald Trump, on the right, shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in the White House Oval Office in Washington, DC, on February 7, 2025. (Getty Images)

The rice trade would be essential for this arrangement, without eetheō wishing to slow down imports of American rice. Currently, imports of American rice should increase by 75%, thanks to a commercial agreement of $ 550 billion, President of President Donald Trump signed with Japan on July 22.

Another possible point of friction in the future could be the desire of Sanseeitō to transform the farmers of the country into employees of the public sector, admitted Gatling. “The agricultural block is one of the most powerful in LDP,” he said. “I don’t know how many farmers want to be public sector employees.”

Although he says that it is too early to determine the future of Sanseeitō in Japanese politics, Gatling said that Kamiya said he was not “interested in building a coalition government”. Gatling believes that the future of the party will depend on the preparations for subsequent elections and demonstrating that “they have reasonable policies”.

Chang said that Sanseeitō’s victory was a loss for the LDP, which, according to him, has been “drifted” since Abe’s resignation in 2020 and the following assassination in 2022. The current Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba “is weak and unpopular”, and the LDP is now found “in the minority in the two houses of the regime for the first time since the party training in 1955 Chang. “Ishiba naturally catches the blame.”

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Although the political waves leave Japan “without rudder”, Chang said that “expects Sanseeitō to be strengthened that, which means that Japan will turn to the interior. Around the world, societies have had enough large foreign populations that do not assimilate, we must therefore not be surprised than Kamiya becomes even more influential.

“The change occurs slowly in Japan until it happens at the same time. Japan is now on the edge of a moment nearby,” said Chang.