Its leader is a former supermarket manager who created his political party on YouTube in the depths of the coronavirus pandemic and campaigned on the Trumpian message “Japanese First.”
Now Japan’s burgeoning right-wing populist party Sanseito has emerged an unlikely winner in parliamentary elections this weekend.
Inspired by other populist right-wing groups that have sprung up in recent years, Sanseito bagged 14 seats in Japan’s upper house, according to public broadcaster NHK – a dramatic increase from the single seat it had occupied previously.
How?
I still blame unscrupulous social media & marketing savvy, knowing how to (ab)use algorithms, lack of legislation both globally and esp. in the country that provides most of these “services”. This is not politics, it’s a legal grift.