Far-Right In Japan

Now, it is the turn of Japan and history comes full circle. The country is fast catching the contagion of Far-Right ideology that is sweeping vast swathes of land in Europe and other continents.

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Pro-Nazi forces have emerged in Germany as the second largest outfit getting wide popular support. A pro-Fascist political party in Italy has already captured power. These two countries along with Japan, known as the Axis powers, were primarily responsible for the hate-politics that brought about the Second World War. In Japan, these forces were hardly visible till the outbreak of CoVID-19 in 2020. But, now telltale signs of a movement that draws its inspiration from anti-migrant and xenophobic ideas such as US President Donald Trump’s clarion call of MAGA (Make America Great Again) are clearly visible with the Far-Right party Sanseito winning 14 seats in the upper house recently. The numbers may not, on the surface, signify much since Japan’s upper house has a total of 248 members. But what is most disconcerting for liberal parties is that the Right-wing populist party is gaining national traction. Just as Far-Right populist parties in Europe initially found success in modest and underestimated ways within select elections and regions, the Japanese version of such political forces shows how populism serves as a flexible political platform as exemplified by San-seito’s MAGA-inspired “Japanese First” politics.