The surge of the populist Sanseito party in Japan’s 2025 House of Councillors election, coupled with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s tightening of restrictions on foreigners, has drawn attention towards a potential anti-immigration politics sweeping Japan.
The country has experienced neither a massive influx of refugees nor the integration crises seen in Europe, and foreign residents are often cast as the injured party — rather than a threat — in discussions of immigration-related problems such as abuses under the Technical Intern Training Program and overstretched municipal services. So why are narratives typical of Western right-wing populism
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