Japan, already reputed to be a very open country, sees a disturbing xenophobia rise. In the senatorial elections on Sunday, the conservative party in power for 70 years has been exceeded on its right by Le Sanseeito, a new anti-foreign training which notably seduces young people.
“The Japanese first!” Crie a few days ago in a public place Saya, a popular candidate in the senatorial elections in Japan. Sunday evening, her message obviously carried: she came out in the lead in Tokyo, without difficulty clipping one of the seven seats at stake in the capital.
Sanseito candidates express exactly what I think every day
Among his supporters that day, Akiko fervently applauded the xenophobic speech of the candidate of the young far-right party without Eeito. “The candidates of the Sanseito express exactly what I think every day,” she said at the microphone of a whole world, before exposing her grievances.
“The Chinese of my building deposit their bulky garbage on the ground, without calling the competent services, nor sticking the sticker proving that they paid for the collection tax,” she annoys. Do they do so on purpose or do they ignore the rules? It doesn’t matter to him: “I don’t want this kind of disruptive foreigners to come to Japan.”
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“More foreigners than Japanese infants”
And it does not stop there: “I have the impression that there are more and more foreigners who have a permanent resident status. There are more today who enter Japan than Japanese infants who are born every year.” In his eyes, “Japan is Japan because it is populated by Japanese. I also feel that the liberal democratic party in power financially favors foreigners.”
We do not want immigrants to replace the Japanese. But only, if necessary, foreign workers temporarily
The profile of Akiko – Japanese originally not very politicized, but reinforced in his opinions by social networks – is typical of party support. Sanseito is based on these channels where fears, false information and viral videos are propagated showing behavior of tourists or foreign residents deemed moved.
A charismatic founder
And the party’s strategy is bearing fruit, especially among young people and women, sometimes also seduced by the charisma of its founder, Sohei Kamiya, who assumes his anti-foreign speech: “We do not want immigrants to replace the Japanese. But only, if necessary, foreign workers temporarily.”
What about denatality? There too, its line is clear: there is no question of replacing the Japanese with foreigners. Better, according to him, a smaller population, but made up of real Japanese. Result: the Sanseeito managed to impose the so-called “problem of foreigners” as a central theme of its campaign.
With 15 elected officials against 2 before, the Sanseeito can now offer laws in the Parliament and weigh in the debate. And while the liberal democratic party, already very conservative, has lost its majority in the two chambers of the diet, an even further shift is not to be excluded.
SUJET Radio: Karen nishimura
Text for the web: Fabien Grenon
