One of the most stunning outcomes that emerged from the Upper House election was a seat won by an extremely conservative party calling for the freedom to opt out of masks and vaccines amid the ongoing pandemic.

The 2-year-old Sanseito party (political participation party), which espouses anti-immigrant and protectionist views, garnered a seat in the proportional representation segment of the election, attracting a staggering 1.76 million votes.

That was 500,000 more votes than the number gained by the Social Democratic Party, which has a long history in Japanese politics, and the anti-NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corp.) party, which was founded in 2013 by a former employee of the public broadcaster to oppose the license fee.

One of the co-leaders of Sanseito, Yumi Akao, 57, described it as “Japan’s first political party to oppose globalism.”

Sanseito Secretary-General Sohei Kamiya, a former assemblyman of Suita, Osaka Prefecture, who helped found the party in 2020, won the Upper House seat and is now poised to pursue a set of conservative policy measures in the Diet.

The party has characterized the pandemic as being staged and has heavily criticized the government’s handling of the health crisis. It uses rhetoric that resembles that of former U.S. President Donald Trump and his calls to “make American great again.”

In a campaign speech, one of the party’s candidates underscored the need to “restore a true Japan,” calling it “the world’s best” country.

Ninety-eight percent of its 50 candidates support protecting domestic industries, according to a joint study by The Asahi Shimbun and the University of Tokyo.

The study also found that 94 percent oppose Japan accepting more foreign workers.

Asked about parallels with the “America First” policy championed by Trump, Kamiya acknowledged the similarities, saying, “There is no question about it.”

“We don’t mean to care about only Japan’s interests,” he told The Asahi Shimbun. “But right now we must revive Japan ahead of other countries.”

SUCCESS THROUGH YOUTUBE

As of December 2021, the party only had about 10,000 members. That figure has since jumped ninefold.

It fielded candidates in all 45 electoral districts and five in the proportional representation segment in the Upper House election. And Kamiya said at a news conference on July 11 that the party intends to field hundreds of candidates in next year’s unified local elections to expand its support across Japan.

The party owes a lot of that success to its strategy of wooing supporters through its YouTube videos.

Many of its supporters learned of the party’s existence after watching them, according to party officials.

A Tokyo YouTube creator in his 40s who was closely following the social media air war said Sanseito beat the populist anti-NHK party in terms of most video views this election.

“The party’s stance that the coronavirus pandemic is not a big deal and inoculation should be left to individual choice won the hearts of a certain segment of voters,” he said.

In terms of subscriber counts, Sanseito boasts 200,000 on its official YouTube channel. That is still no match for the 490,000 subscribers of the channel owned by Takashi Tachibana, head of the anti-NHK party, which has broadened its clout through social media.

But it is only 40,000 fewer than the number for Reiwa Shinsengumi.

The party does much better on the platform than more mainstream parties. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has 130,000 subscribers, while the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan has 20,000 and Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) has 30,000.

GRASSROOTS APPEAL

The growing momentum of the young party, backed by about 90,000 members, was on full display at Shiba Park in Tokyo’s Minato Ward on the evening of July 9, the last day of election campaigning.

About 15,000 supporters showed up and more than 20,000 watched the livestream when Kamiya, 44, gave his speech, according to party officials.

“If we reinvent education, Japanese traditional spirit will be reinvigorated,” he told the fervent audience. “Then, people will begin thinking about what will be good for others and society.”

Sanseito listed three key policies for the Upper House election: educating children to help them think, rather than get good grades, and value Japanese and local traditions; providing food and health care that do not rely on chemicals and pursuing an agricultural system that eliminates waste; and protecting Japan from foreign influences through enactment of legislation regulating purchases of property and companies by non-Japanese players and limiting foreign workers.

Its website states the party “receives no assistance from religious groups or political organizations.”

The party’s grassroots design is a big draw for supporters. It offers four tiers of membership, some of which have more influence internally.

A party member paying a monthly fee of 1,000 yen ($7.30) gets a daily audio recording and a column to read. 

But if individuals pay 4,000 yen in monthly fees, they become eligible to vote on policy measures compiled at party’s policy making meetings.

Kodai Oka, 43, a company employee in Saitama Prefecture who joined the party in January, said Sanseito's appeal is that he can get involved in the party’s decision-making process and management.

A local party chapter selects its election candidate after a discussion. But the candidate must be later approved in a vote involving all party members.

Sanseito also makes it clear that its campaign pledges are “aimed for party members, not for the general public.”

The party allows a policy measure drafted by any member to be submitted for approval during the party’s top decision-making process, according to Oka.

“This is the democracy that we learned in junior high and high school,” he said.

He decided to pay the 4,000 yen in monthly fees and volunteer his time to help the party campaign in the Upper House election.

(This article was written by Eishi Kado and Taishi Sasayama.)