Japan’s upper house election in July 2025 drew widespread attention to Sanseito, a right-wing party that campaigned using anti-foreigner narratives. However, this trend wasn’t unique to Sanseito; some unaffiliated political candidates also used anti-immigrant rhetoric in their campaigns.
One example is Hirano Uryu (who has also used other names such as Suzuko Ogino and Suzuko Hirano). The youngest candidate in the Tokyo electoral district in history, Hirano campaigned in the Japanese traditional kimono and frequently spoke about the need to limit immigration from China in particular. She was not elected to office but still was able to get 235,411 votes.
Notably, Hirano is also seen as a pro-Hong Kong activist and was denied entry to Hong Kong in 2024. She makes for an interesting case study because recently some netizens, including her former supporters, have wondered if she is a naturalized Japanese citizen. This led some to question whether her slogan “Japan First” was actually “Hong Kong First.”
Hirano denied the claim, even publishing official family registry documents to dispel the rumors. Still, this example shows that candidates who rely on nationalistic rhetoric can be quickly discredited if their national identities are called into question. This probably is because such politicians largely campaign on the strength of their personal appeal, rather than specific economic and social policies.
Another example is Hezumaryu during Nara’s city council election. Hezumaryu, whose real name is Harada Masahiro, is a former nuisance YouTuber who was arrested for crimes such as robbery and forcible obstruction of business in 2020. He turned himself into a deer activist, frequently posting photos and videos of tourists misbehaving in the Nara Park such as kicking deer and leaving trash. He was elected to office in in Nara’s city council with 8,320 votes, the third largest total.
Hezumaryu is another interesting case. Nara is a city where humans have historically coexisted with deer, and the deer is seen as a sacred animal. While the iconic deer has attracted a record level of foreign tourists and potential economic gains to Nara in 2024, this has created safety problems for both deer and tourists. Local authorities have taken measures such as using signage, loudspeakers, and handouts, installing trashcans, and organizing patrols to warn tourists not to harm deer.
Hezumaryu was able to win by using Nara-specific rhetoric that emphasized protecting the deer from tourists’ “attacks” beyond protecting the “people” from immigrants. His image as a deer activist probably played an important role in his success.
Hirano Uryu and Hezumaryu share some similarities during their campaigns in Japan’s upper house and city council elections. They both were running for office for the first time, were unaffiliated with any political parties, and had anti-immigrant stances without concrete policy packages. They also actively presented their anti-immigrant stances on social media, a campaign technique popular among right-wing populists.
However, this strategy raises a question: Did these candidates use anti-immigrant rhetoric because there has been a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment among the public in Japan in recent years?
Based on survey data from more than 10 public opinion polls from three types of sources – the government, mass media, and academic institutions (both domestic and international ones) – Go Murakami, a professor from the Graduate School of Law at Ritsumeikan University, showed that anti-immigrant sentiment in Japan in the past four decades has been rather stable.
There is somewhat a gap between the campaign strategies of these political candidates and the stable anti-immigrant sentiment among the public. The Japanese public has not become more anti-immigrant, so it is not accurate to say that the political candidates were merely reacting to the public’s anti-immigrant sentiment.
Given that their campaigns didn’t reflect a change in voter sentiment, why did these candidates secure large numbers of votes?
One possible explanation is that the voters did not cast their votes because they were supportive of candidates’ anti-immigrant stances specifically; instead they were drawn to their active social media presence – full of images and videos – and their right-wing or authoritarian, populist speech style, which is simple and repetitive. This rhetorical style categorizes foreigners and domestic multiculturalists as “outsiders” and “enemies” and creates an “us” and “them” divide. It does not suggest concrete and informed economic and social policies.
During Japan’s upper house election in 2025, although many political candidates campaigned around cultural and cosmopolitan issues, the public’s anti-immigrant sentiment has not been on rise in recent years, based on data from multiple surveys. The large numbers of votes that Sanseito’s candidates and some unaffiliated anti-immigrant candidates were able to obtain can instead be attributed to their populist speech style and social media engagement.