Media Misses Significance of Japan’s “Japanese First” Moment

One month on from Japan’s seismic elections last month, the global media has still failed to grasp the significance of the outcome – both for Japan and the global conservative movement.

On July 20, Japanese voters headed to the polls to select representatives to the House of Councillors, the upper house of the country’s legislature, the National Diet. That election produced a political earthquake unlike anything the country has seen in decades.

For the first time since 2009, Japan’s ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner Komeito lost its majority in the House of Councillors. The coalition shed 19 of its 66 seats, delivering a sharp blow to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s administration and ending the uninterrupted dominance of Japan’s establishment conservatives.

But while the LDP bled support, the big winners were not Japan’s liberal parties. Instead, it was the upstart Sanseito (“Party of Do It Yourself”) that shocked the political class – gaining 14 new seats in addition to the one already held by its leader.

Mainstream media outlets rushed to dismiss this as a fringe victory driven by conspiracy theories and xenophobia. Local Japanese outlets framed the results as a “loss of public trust,” and urged Sanseito to “reconnect with the public.” That narrative entirely misses the point. Just as American media failed to grasp the significance of Donald Trump’s America First movement in 2016, they are now ignoring Japan’s own “Japanese First” moment.

For Americans, some context is necessary. Japan is a parliamentary democracy with a bicameral legislature (the Diet). The more powerful House of Representatives, or lower house, chooses the prime minister and controls most legislation.

The House of Councillors, or upper house, functions more like America’s Senate, acting as a check but with less power than the lower chamber. Since the mid-20th century, Japanese politics has been dominated by the LDP, which is best understood as the establishment conservative party. Despite the word “liberal” in its name, the LDP has long stood for pro-business policies, close ties with Washington, a strong national defense, and a cautious social conservatism.

With Komeito as its coalition partner, the LDP has held absolute majorities in both chambers of the Diet since 2009. That era of dominance is now unraveling, as the LDP also lost its absolute majority in the House of Representatives last year. But once again, the beneficiaries were not left-wing parties like the Constitutional Democratic Party or the Social Democrats. Instead, the momentum is with right-wing populists like Sanseito, who are channeling the same frustrations that powered the Trump revolution in the United States.

Sanseito’s rise is not a fluke. Founded in 2020 by Sohei Kamiya, the party has quickly become a home for Japanese voters disillusioned with decades of stagnation and establishment complacency. Contrary to the media caricature, Sanseito did not simply appear out of nowhere.

“The Sanseito leader has been in politics for 15 years,” notes Romeo Marcantuoni, a scholar from Waseda University. “His remarkable success is a result of perseverance.”

Kamiya’s roots are in the conservative wing of the LDP led by the late Prime Minister Shinzō Abe. Inspired by Abe’s call for a “confident and proud Japan,” Kamiya built his own movement after leaving the LDP. He carried forward Abe’s vision of “taking back Japan” – reversing decades of failed policies on economics, defense, and foreign affairs.

Kamiya also built something Abe never achieved: a nationwide grassroots machine. By 2023, Sanseito had established over 270 regional offices, built an online following of nearly half a million through his “Grand Strategy” YouTube channel, and connected with young voters in a way no other party has. In 2022, Sanseito entered the upper house. In 2024, it won three seats in the lower house. In 2025, it exploded into national relevance.

Following his victory, Kamiya announced: “The goal is to secure 40 to 50 seats and possibly participate in a coalition following the next election.” Experts believe he could even “transform the soul of the LDP,” fulfilling what Abe once aspired to do.

Kamiya describes Sanseito as “the only truly conservative party that puts Japan and the people who live here first.” Unsurprisingly, critics accuse him of nationalism and xenophobia – just as they attacked Trump. But Sanseito’s platform is neither fringe nor irrational. It is rooted in family, tradition, and patriotism.

Sanseito’s planks include pro-family policies like child subsidies, scholarships, homeschooling, and support for alternative education options; economic sovereignty measures such as restrictions on foreign ownership of land and public-sector jobs; a ban on welfare benefits for non-citizens; and community empowerment, giving families and localities a greater role in governance instead of one-size-fits-all central mandates.

When accused of racism, Kamiya responds simply: “Isn’t it only natural to design our economic and tax policies to put our citizens first?”

Polls show his message resonates. Among voters aged 18 to 29, Sanseito has an approval rating of 26 percent, far higher than any other new party. Across the electorate, more than 50 percent of voters say the LDP’s loss of its majority is a “good thing.” Japan faces a society-wide crisis of collapsing birth rates, a national debt more than twice the size of its GDP, and an increasingly top-heavy society dominated by the elderly. New births fell another 5.7 percent in 2024, while the cost of education continues to rise.

Many voters fear that Japan is losing not only its prosperity but also its spirit. As Dr. Carl Geibler, a former German diplomat to Japan, observed, “Voters viewed Sanseito as a new entity – a party that encourages everyone to engage in politics to seek solutions together and fix it.”

Young people in particular feel abandoned by the LDP and betrayed by the liberals. Sanseito is the first party to speak directly to them, and to treat them as citizens, not “masses,” deserving of truth rather than empty slogans.

In light of all this, it is no wonder that some in the American press are already calling Kamiya a “mini-Trump.” The parallels are hard to ignore: a political outsider, underestimated by the establishment, propelled by a patriotic message that elites dismiss as dangerous but ordinary voters see as common sense.

Sanseito is reshaping the Japanese political landscape. The day after the election, young LDP lawmakers called for the Prime Minister’s resignation, echoing Kamiya’s critique that Ishiba “failed to stand on the side of the Japanese people and lacked a proud vision” for the nation.

Japan’s “Japanese First” moment is here. Like Trump’s America First movement in 2016, it is being mocked, maligned, and misunderstood by the media. But voters know better. They are demanding a government that serves its people first – and Sanseito is the party answering that call.

Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, and researcher.