The Sanseito party, which translates as the Political Participation Party, has gained ground in a recent election in the country, with a message that prioritizes the Japanese citizens. Sound familiar? Donald Kirk reports in The New York Sun:

Japan’s conservative Liberal Democratic Party may not go on ruling as it has for most of the past 70 years if the results of elections for the upper house of the parliament, or Diet, are any indication of impending change.

This time Japan’s conservative structure is not challenged by leftists and socialists but rather by a far-right party whose rise parallels that of conservatism in America and Europe. At the forefront is a party that few had heard of, even in Japan, until recently, the Sanseito, or Political Participation Party, led by a former supermarket manager, Sohei Kamiya, with a basic message that is rapidly gaining traction in a disillusioned electorate.

“Japanese First” forms the dominant appeal of the Sanseito, which criticizes the influx of foreigners, hates rising taxes, and calls for greater reverence, if not authority, for the emperor. The Sanseito won 14 of 126 seats up for grabs in the Diet while the conservative DPP, or Democratic Party for the People, won 17 seats — enough to make sure the old-time LDP failed to win a majority in the upper house even with the help of its long-time ally, the Buddhist-backed Komeito.

The rise of the Sanseito was all the more impressive considering that it was founded less than five years ago, and its appeal is spreading among a populace wearying of LDP rule. “People are really disillusioned,” a Japanese housewife told the Sun. “They’re so fed up. People need something new. The LDP is corrupt to the core.”

Read more here.