By Axel Nodinot, Journalist, specialist in Asia-Pacific
Imagine your astonishment when, strolling through the streets of a large German city, you would discover a church where people come to pray for the Nazi soldiers who died in combat. This revisionist madness exists right in the center of Tokyo, just a stone’s throw from the Kokyo, the palace of the imperial family. At the Yasukuni Shinto shrine, among large alleys, cherry trees, and old tea houses, the Japanese honor the two million “deities” who fell during the colonial invasions of the empire (1868-1945) and during the “Great East Asian War” – the Second World War. Along a path, a monument is even erected in honor of the Kempeitai, nicknamed the “Japanese Gestapo,” who tortured, massacred, raped, and forced Koreans, Chinese, Taiwanese, and other peoples of the region into forced labor.
This dark era, which saw Japan join the Axis powers and culminate in the horror of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, still has its nostalgic followers. This was evidenced by the July 20th election, which renewed half of the seats in the House of Councillors, the upper house of the Japanese Diet. The main conclusion of this election is the loss of majority by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP, right). This loss was predictable, as its leaders, embroiled in financial and electoral fraud scandals, led the people into unsustainable ultraliberalism. However, this new setback is overshadowed by the rise of far-right movements, hitherto marginal or attempting to take control of the LDP.
The Sanseito, a populist and xenophobic party, had only one councilor until now – Sohei Kamiya, its leader. He managed to get 14 more elected, garnering 7.4 million votes across the archipelago, or 12.55%. Created in 2020 during the Covid-19 crisis, the movement is very active on social networks, where its leaders spew anti-Semitic, anti-vax, homophobic speeches and advocate for the rewriting of Japan’s peaceful Constitution. It has especially managed to capture the nationalist faction of LDP voters. These voters come from affluent classes, and the most zealous among them have so far followed the very right-wing Sanae Takaichi. She almost became prime minister in September 2024, during the internal party elections convened after the resignation of Fumio Kishida (2021-2024), narrowly losing to Shigeru Ishiba, the current leader. Also a revisionist, she regularly visits the Yasukuni shrine, hands laden with offerings. Takaichi is also affiliated with Nippon Kaigi, an ultranationalist organization whose symbol is the former flag of imperial Japan, on which the rising sun radiates its red rays.
But the Sanseito managed to mobilize the popular electorate. At 47 years old, Sohei Kamiya ran a campaign akin to Donald Trump’s (whose “bold political style” he praises) focused on immigration and “Japanese first“, diverting the main concerns of the working class: social security, rising rice prices, and the alarming decline in birth rates. Like their South Korean neighbors, the Japanese are depressed by inflation and a very demanding work culture, which makes them reluctant to marry and start a family. In 2024, only about 700,000 births were recorded in the archipelago, the lowest figure since the establishment of the census in the late 19th century. Unbridled capitalism and the inequalities it creates lead some Japanese men to isolation – symbolized by the worrying phenomenon of hikikomori, these more or less young men who no longer leave their rooms, even to the point of dying there – and provide fertile ground for anti-feminism and xenophobia.
It is also to these masculinists that Sanseito has appealed, like other nationalist right-wing leaders such as American Donald Trump, Argentine Javier Milei, or South Korean Yoon Suk-yeol, who was ousted after declaring martial law in December 2024. Sohei Kamiya, for example, has called gender equality “a mistake that pushes women to work and prevents them from having children“. Resolutely anti-union and in favor of tax cuts for businesses and “cuts” in administration and public services, he also advocates for the remilitarization of the archipelago. The topic has been hotly debated in recent years: while Article 9 of the Constitution indeed prohibits Japan from having an army other than for defense, the text inherited from 1945 has been constantly unraveled by LDP governments since Shinzo Abe (2006-2007 and 2012-2020): the jietai (Japanese Self-Defense Forces) are now deployed abroad, and the country recently launched its first aircraft carrier since the end of World War II. This is the “Kaga,” named after a former aircraft carrier that had served during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Battle of Pearl Harbor.
This remilitarization is largely encouraged by the American ally, which provides weapons to Tokyo, Seoul, Manila, and Taipei to encircle China in the Pacific. The “island chains strategy,” as formulated by Washington, makes Japan an essential link in American imperialism in Asia. Some 50,000 US troops are permanently stationed in the archipelago, notably on military bases in Okinawa to the south, which irritates the locals, who have long been faced with assaults on young Japanese women by soldiers. The Japanese government also aims to establish a unified command of the jieitai, led by an American general. To rearm their country despite the “eternal peace” inscribed in the Constitution, the leaders have ordered a whopping 147 F-35 bomber aircraft from the Pentagon in the past decade, as well as several hundred Tomahawk missiles. In 2023, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, also from the LDP ranks, had the Diet pass a military programming law that would give Japan the world’s third-largest defense budget.
Recently, threats of tariffs from the Trump administration once again forced Shigeru Ishiba to capitulate. Among the Prime Minister’s concessions to the US President, in addition to the 15% tax on Japanese products, are investments of $550 billion in the American industry, particularly in armaments, while ” the Ministry of Defense already buys about 1 trillion yen (5.8 billion euros, ed.) in weapons from the United States,” laments the communist newspaper Akahata. To make matters worse, Ishiba advocates for an ” Asian NATO” that would further entrench Washington in the Asia-Pacific region, risking angering Beijing and igniting regional tensions. The Prime Minister even mentions the ” American nuclear umbrella,” unthinkable for the only atom-bombed country in history, just days before the 80th anniversary commemorations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
This deadly escalation provokes the ire of the hibakusha, the survivors of the nuclear bomb and their descendants. They already see their government boycotting the latest preparatory committee for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference this year. They now fear that Article 9 will soon be repealed, a fervent desire of Sanseito and nationalist factions of the LDP. At one point suggested, Shigeru Ishiba’s resignation after the July 20th election is ultimately abandoned. But to govern, the Prime Minister will have to forge new alliances with opposition parties. It remains to be seen whether he will prioritize the needs of his people, as desired by progressive pacifists, or if he will prefer to court the bellicose nationalists. Unfortunately, some initial answers already exist. During the campaign, the liberals aligned themselves with the xenophobic agenda of the far right and the American “peace through strength” policy. This could one day see the rays of the Japanese empire burn the East Asia once again.
