Fear of ‘Silent Invasion’ by foreigners in Japan appeals to the extreme right -wing popularity

The Japanese prime minister has launched an office aimed at promoting “harmonious coexistence” with strange subjects, while an ultra-conservative party was a wave of anti-immigration sentiment to unexpected election success.

In a shock for the long-running Liberal Democratic Party, Fringe Sanseito won 14 seats in the Hogerhuis on Sunday with 248 seats, the fourth largest opposition party in parliament with his calls for a performance against “excessive acceptance of foreigners”.

Sanseito had proposed “loyalty controls” for foreigners, as well as the suspension of social services to foreign residents and strict limits for hiring them.

The leader of the party, Sohei Kamiya, recently told a meeting that “under globalism multinational companies have changed Japan’s policy for their own purposes”.

Analysts say that the rise of Sanseito has exposed long-term public fear of rising costs, over-tourism and a stagnant economy that all blame foreigners.

Premier Shigeru Ishiba announced the establishment of an office within the Japanese cabinet last week to manage an inflow of foreigners needed to support the economy affected by a rapidly aging population.

Although Japan had to accept a certain degree of foreign employees and invite spending by tourists, Mr. Ishiba said that the behavior of some foreigners made sure that Japanese felt “fear and unfairness”, according to the public broadcaster NHK.

The attraction of extreme right -wing politics was mainly driven by economic factors, said Simon Avenell, a Japanese expert at Australian National University.

“First and foremost it is about the portfolios of people,” said Professor Avenell.

The thriving tourism sector of Japan is one of the few parts of the economy that follows well.

A record of 36.9 million foreign visitors arrived in 2024-one jump of 47 percent compared to the previous year and higher than for the pre-assured levels.

“Tourists can afford to pay for a price increase for a bowl of windows, while the locals have difficulty buying a dozen eggs,” said Professor Avenell.

“Buses are full. Trains are busy. The locals feel pushed out of their own space,” he said.

During the polls, 29 percent of voters told NHK that social security and a decreasing birth rate were their greatest concerns.

The price of rice, which remains a staple of the Japanese diet, has doubled in the past year.

In the light of economic fear, the populist message of Sanseito is resonated with many Japanese voters.

The figures behind the return

Sanseito was founded in 2019, which comes from an ultranationalist YouTube channel.

The “Japanese first” pitch of the party is that the country is under cultural and economic threats of outsiders.

Foreigners, according to them, prices, overcrowding cities, committing crimes and buying Japanese land.

“The requirement for prospective candidates and party members to submit nationality information, so that they are ‘pure Japanese’ is attractive,” a Sanseito supporter said the Japanese newspaper De Mainichi Shimbun last week.

Almost 3.8 million foreign residents lived in Japan at the end of 2024, just under 3 percent of the total population.

This is in stark contrast to other rich nations. Almost a third of the Australian population was born abroad.

But the number of foreign residents has risen steadily, while Japan has carefully relaxed his immigration laws in recent years, for example by making special visa categories to tackle labor shortages in nursing and construction.

At the same time, tourism has exploded.

Japan had already seen the arrival of 18 million tourists in May of this year – and cities such as Kyoto and Tokyo feel the tension.

“The majority of Japanese citizens are not xenophobic,” says Ryosuke Hanada, a Japanese citizen and PhD student at Macquarie University.

“What they want is an adjustment of the rules that are applied to temporary residents.”

Mr. Hanada said that right -wing populism was feeding on real economic stress, visible demographic shifts and a government that had so far avoided a serious discussion about what integration or coexistence with foreigners could look like.

Foreign ownership and public benefits

Sanseito has capitalized on resentment about foreign access to public resources and property.

“There are no restrictions for foreign land ownership in Japan,” said Hanada.

“This causes the rise in real estate prices in the metropolitan area of Tokyo.”

There are no publicly available information about the nationality of buyers in Japan, but one overview of housing developers by Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corptered that 20 percent to 40 percent of the new apartments in Central Tokyo was purchased by foreigners.

Although some high-end properties in Tokyo or ski cities have seen foreign interest and have blown up the local prices, there is no widespread evidence that this takes place throughout the country.

Foreign residents who stay for more than three months are automatically registered in the Japanese National Health Insurance Scheme and can request social housing, childcare and other social services.

Nana Oishi, a associate professor of Japanese studies at the University of Melbourne, said that many Japanese people felt that public resources should be “priority for wrestling Japanese subjects”.

“These perceptions have contributed to the attraction of messages from Sanseito,” she said.

And there is still a low: fear of global power shifts.

With the Trump administration that runs new American rates on Japanese export, some voters feel the need to adopt a more self-protective attitude.

The sharp rise of Sanseito has forced the liberal Democratic Party, a center -right party that has long dominated Japanese politics, to respond.

Professor Avenell said that the government was not “prepared for the debate”, but quickly moved when Anti-Buitenlandse sentiment was reflected in the polls.

“Or the panel [to manage foreigners] Does something meaningful still unclear, but politics has shifted, “he said.

Some regions are already acting on over-tourism.

Differential prices – where foreigners pay more for attractions such as temples or services – have been introduced in tourist hotspots.

Other ideas, such as covering tourist numbers or limiting purchases in sensitive zones, have received a grip but are confronted with legal and economic obstacles.

But Dr. Oishi said that despite over-tourism in cities such as Kyoto: “Most Japanese cities continue to welcome international tourists and foreign residents”.