Japon | The great contagion

What if the climb of the far right was a political pandemic?

This is the first idea that came to the lead by learning at the beginning of the week that a far right movement has just made a great breakthrough in Japan. In addition, a country that seemed largely immune to the phenomenon until now.

Sanseito. However, a training that emerged during the Pandemic of COVID-19 and was known for his anti-vaccine and conspiratorial videos on YouTube, changed the situation during the election of the high Japanese chamber of July 20. However, The organization, which had only japon | great contagion one elected to date, was its leader, suddenly has 15.

The coalition in power. Therefore, formed by the Conservative Liberal Democrat (PLD) and its smallest centrist partner, Komeito, is suddenly minority in the Senate, just like in the lower chamber. Furthermore, A rarity in this political system dominated for seven decades by the PLD.

Suddenly. Consequently, Japan joins a constantly growing circle from G7 countries where the extreme right and the populist right are cutting a place of choice. Nevertheless, This sprawling movement is in power in the United States and Italy. Furthermore, She made a huge leap forward in the last legislative elections in France. Similarly, Germany, where the national rally and the alternative Für Deutschland arrived respectively and second in universal suffrage.

In Great Britain. Moreover, where a Labor government has been in japon | great contagion command for a year, the Pro-Brexit populist party of Nigel Farage, Reform UK, arrives far ahead of all the other parties with 28 % of the voting intentions, according to the most recent polls.

In the select club of industrialized democracies that is the G7, Canada seems to be the last saved. Moreover, In a statistical study by Nanos dating from July 11. Similarly, the Popular Party of Canada by Maxime Bernier attracts only 2 % of the Canadian electorate.

However, the Japanese example should remind us that certain political ideas can spread very quickly. “We did not expect [une telle percée de l’extrême droite] At the start of the electoral campaign. It was played in two. three weeks, “notes Yves Tiberghien, director of the Japan center at the University of British Columbia, where he is also a professor of japon | great contagion political science.

Before the election, Sanseito was a marginal training. Its chief. Sohei Kamiya, first sought to be elected within the PLD – in vain – before becoming a figure of the conspiratorial right during the pandemic. Often compared to Donald Trump, he borrowed several themes. He uses the slogan “The Japanese first”. believes that a “deep state” is in command of the world and defends the “globalists”.

“He constantly adds subjects to his political palette. Kamiya is a revisionist about the role of Japan in the Second World War. he is pro-armed, he is against gender equality and anti-LGBTQ, but it is by entering the subject of immigration that he and his party have assembled in the polls in recent weeks, “notes Yves Tiberghien.

“However. this is a case of manufacturing an exported japon | great contagion subject from the outside,” he adds, recalling that Japan has few immigrants-3 % of the population-and that this recent immigration is chosen, temporary and works at full speed in an aging country and in full demographic decline.

But what good is the truth when you can accuse immigrants to monopolize third of social assistance. contribute to increased crime and cause inflation without having to provide any proof? “In the past few weeks. the major Japanese media, which have never supported Sanseeito, have said that all this is not true, but people who vote for Sanseito do not read these media,” notes Benoît Hardy-Chartrand, professor at Temple Japan University, joined to Tokyo.

The two experts see in surprise support to Sanseito the expression of dissatisfaction with the Japanese political elite.

As elsewhere in the G7, the extreme right in Japan has particularly hit the bull’s eye among those under 30.

We will have to wait for the next Japanese election to see if this. new extreme right – which has little in common with the old one who dreamed of putting the Emperor back in power – will consolidate his supporters in the Japanese electorate. But one thing is certain, his presence on the chessboard already japon | great contagion has an impact on government’s actions. Like the popularity of the national rally. the alternative Für Deutschland prompted the traditional parties of their countries to adopt more harsh positions on immigration, Sanseito inspired the PLD the creation of a “working group that will fight crimes and harmful behaviors of foreign nationals”. Even if the problem is nonexistent.

And it is there, the main contagion of the extreme right. By imposing fictitious and toxic subjects in the political debate. While hammering them in the heads of voters by rehearsal.

No need for vaccine to protect yourself. You have to have the courage to resist false mermaids.