Japan’s July 2025 Upper House election delivered a humiliating drubbing to the long-dominant center-right Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The LDP failed to defend 13 seats and gained only 39 out of 124 contested, while its junior coalition partner Kōmeitō also suffered losses, leaving an LDP-led government with minority status in both Houses for the first time in history. In contrast, the most significant gains were made by a five-year-old fringe party, Sanseitō, which increased its strength in the House from one to 15 seats.
Sanseitō, which got its start on Youtube, is arguably the first successful radical-right populist party to emerge in contemporary Japanese politics. Staunchly conservative, if not “extremist” and “xenophobic,” its rise to prominence has caused an uproar in the global press. Japan, long perceived as impervious to the populist wave that has swept across the world, seemed to be following the trajectory of other developed democracies in which illiberal forces are on the rise.