The elections in Japan bring to light a youth that leans to the right | International

Under the electoral tsamot that has shaken the ruling coalition of Japan, the currents of the discourse of the right with dyes move Trumpians They travel the globe. The formation of the prime minister, Shigeru Ihhiba, the conservative Democratic Liberal Party (PLD), and his traditional ally, the Komeito minority, left in the partial elections of Sunday the majority that held so far in the upper dietary house (the Japanese Parliament). The debacle joins the one they had already suffered in the elections last October, when they lost most in the lower house, with more political weight. And could suppose a script turn for a country that has been governed by the PLD almost without interruptions since 1955.

A good part of the detellada received is explained by a vote of discontent among young people who have gone to small populist bias matches that demand tax cuts, question the current state of things, they are suspicious of traditional parties, and convince with the siren songs about the greatness of the past. In some cases they defend openly xenophobic speeches and contrary to gender policies.

The paradigmatic case has been Sanseito, a formation born in 2020 through a recruitment on YouTube. His campaign slogan was “Japan first”, with clear reminiscences of the Maga Movement (Make America Great Again) that has driven Donald Trump in the United States. It has gone from 2 to 15 members in the upper house, after placing the rejection of immigration in the center of the political debate

Its founder, Sohei Kamiya – a former member of the 47 -year -old PLD, former supermarket manager and ex -recess of the Earth’s Self -Defense Force of Japan – blames the globalization of Japanese economic evil which considers “heretical” for Japan.

The Democratic Party for the People (PDP) has also experienced a notable increase that has increased its representation also in 13 seats, from 9 to 22. Considered of a center -right in the political spectrum, the PDP, very focused on the economic issue, has been “often qualified as a populist for its appeal to public frustration with the status quo and its skilled use of social networks to expand their scope, ”defines the Center for Strategic and International Studies in its analysis of the elections. In the general elections of October, this formation quadrupled the number of seats in the lower house, up to 28 seats.

The success of these two nationalist formations shows something similar to a generational gap. Around half of the men and women under 40, they opted for them, according to a urn poll of the Kyodo agency cited by The New York Times. Sanseito has been especially popular among young people, with more than 20% support among people aged 18 and 19, according to the aforementioned agency.

“There was a rise from the extreme right globally. But so far, in Japan the vote did not change the political geography of the right,” explains Takahiko Ueno, associate professor of sociology at the University of Tsuru. The explanation, he adds, is that until now, within the PLD, the faction of the murdered former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe professed “such a discourse to the right” that he barely left hole. “Now a margin has been created,” adds this specialist in migratory issues in Europe and Spain.

Foreign residents have gone from 2.23 million to 3.77 million in the last decade, although only 3% of the total population of more than 120 million people continue to represent. Since 2018, its arrival as a workforce is encouraged in a country of aging and diminishing population. But Ueno believes that sustainable and support policies have not been encouraged. “It is not accepted (foreigners) as permanent members of society” and “in certain regions there is a growing perception that they are a social burden and an increase in critical speeches.”

The success of the Sanseito training, adds this academic, has been especially significant in bedroom cities “without too much contact with foreigners”, but where a middle class with economic instability that often sees how salaries does not arrive to live and form a family lives.

In a survey at the beginning of the campaign, when citizens were asked which factor guided their choice, 31.2% cited prices -related policies, 18% mentioned public welfare, 11.5% emphasized childhood aid and demographic decline, and 9.4% preferred economic growth and labor issues, according to Kyodo.

Opposite for a complicated economic situation, the most extreme speech has set, and there is even another new formation, the Conservative Party of Japan, born in 2023, which has managed to access the upper house for the first time, with two seats, thanks to a strong anti-immigration, anti-LGTB and anti-equality gender speech. He also managed to enter the lower house last year.

Despite the bad results, the Prime Minister, Ishiba, has assured that he will not leave the position. He intends to remain in command to deal with a moment of “national crisis,” he said after the elections, when households suffer from high prices and while Tokyo negotiated a tariff agreement with Washington, which was finally closed this Wednesday at dawn.

Now, it is possible that a political spectrum that turns to the right in Japan has consequences within its own ranks. Members of the executive of his party have assured Wednesday that they consider their resignation “inevitable” after the important setback suffered, as they have collected the Japanese media. It is likely that Ishiba, considered a moderate, to make the final decision in August, have added. The game surely looks at the toughest factions to try to cover the bleeding of votes.