Outside a train station near Tokyo, hundreds of people cheer as Sohei Kamiya, head of the surging nationalist party Sanseito, criticizes Japan’s rapidly growing foreign population.
As opponents, separated by uniformed police and bodyguards, accuse him of racism, Kamiya shouts back, saying he is only talking common sense.
Sanseito, while still a minor party, made big gains in July’s parliamentary election, and Kamiya’s “Japanese First” platform of anti-globalism, anti-immigration and anti-liberalism is gaining broader traction ahead of a ruling party vote Saturday that will choose the likely next prime minister.
This has nothing to do with geopolitics and everything to do with xenophobia and poor governance. Japan’s economy has been in a slump since its bubble burst in the 90s and the center-right LPD (which they for some reason keep electing) has been unable or unwilling to fix it, leading to a recent surge in third parties as people finally decide to look for alternatives, and due to xenophobia et al the far-right was able to market itself as a compelling alternative.
I’ve been told that this is because the population is largely completely politically apathetic, owing to a belief that they aren’t able to meaningfully affect political change. So they don’t engage, and the existing political structures basically persist on inertia, which feeds back into their belief that things can’t change. It’s finally gotten bad enough for people to start trying, but of course angry people tend to vote for racists, because racism provides an easy answer for problems.
But what is the answer? In my country the left has allowed in so many people through various programs but has failed to increase the infrastructure which causes more problems. So now we have all these other problems which pushes people more to the right. And why did they do it keep THE GDP up even though GDP per person was down. The whole thing is BS you can’t have infinite growth as a country or company the sooner we admit that the better.