The Three Big Fallacies of Japan’s Ultra-Right Parties

The setbacks experienced by Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party in the July 2025 parliamentary election came as a surprise to no one. The faltering economy, the recent doubling of rice prices, and the inability of the Ishiba Administration to resolve its trade disputes with the United States made it difficult for the LDP to project any kind of positive message to the voters. Rather, the biggest shock this time around was the success of right-wing alternative parties, particularly those that espoused an anti-immigrant message. The most prominent of these groups is Sanseitō, which increased its presence in the House of Councillors from a single representative to a whopping fifteen seats.

A few of Sanseitō’s policies convey generic political hopes that resonate easily among the electorate. The group is unhappy about excessive taxes. It advocates for strong families, a compelling message in an era of steep population decline. It believes that Japan should be a strong and self-sustaining nation. Who could argue with that?

These positives, however, are drowned out by the group’s pounding message that foreigners are at the root of all Japan’s ills. Are you struggling to make ends meet? Blame an immigrant, who came here just to squander the nation’s welfare largess. Does that alley look darker tonight than it normally does? There’s probably a pack of foreign residents hiding there, ready to pounce. Tonight’s NHK broadcast is talking about an arrest in Osaka. That hoodlum in the back of the police car doesn’t look Japanese to me!

Of course, none of these alleged causes of Japan’s ills are accurate. The crime rate among immigrants is nearly identical to that of the native population, especially when taking the relative poverty of many foreign residents into account. Most visa holders (except for permanent residents) don’t even qualify for welfare payments, so it isn’t possible for them to take away public funds from citizens in need. But none of this matters to those at the extremes of political discourse.

There is a very real danger that such inflammatory rhetoric could lead to violence against foreigners, be they tourists looking to spend a few hundred thousand yen on a quick vacation or long-term immigrants who are doing their best to integrate into the broader Japanese community. Yet these concerns pale in comparison to the damage that fringe groups inflict on Japan and its native population through their distortions. In the worst-case scenario, Sanseitō and their ilk could cause this amazing nation to experience the type of self-harm that is currently tearing apart communities in the United States.

The Gilligan’s Island Fallacy

Three falsehoods in particular need to be confronted before they start to infect the populace at large. The first is the Gilligan’s Island Fallacy. “Gilligan’s Island” was a 1960s American TV comedy that focused on a group of seven characters shipwrecked on a deserted island. In each episode, the castaways must deal with the difficulty of the week, but they always find a way to solve the problem and return to the status quo, albeit one of being trapped on a remote island.

I loved watching reruns of this show as a kid, as it contained the right amount of silliness to entertain most any elementary school student. The problem with this program is that it taught viewers that any trouble in life can be resolved in thirty minutes, minus commercial breaks. While they didn’t escape the island for years, Gilligan, the Skipper, and the rest were able to overcome hurricanes, radioactive meteorites, even a crazed Japanese soldier (portrayed by an Italian American actor). And it wasn’t just this show. A large percentage of American TV programs and films communicate the easy message that any trauma, from a breakup with your boyfriend to invasion by space aliens, can be resolved by gumption, power, and just the right amount of love. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is the Gilligan’s Island of our generation.

Blaming foreigners for Japan’s woes is a real-world implementation of this same plot device. The reality is that Japan’s societal concerns are complex and broad, and stem from innumerable internal and external causes built up over many decades. The idea that ridding the nation of its foreign infestation would suddenly resolve societal issues such as low birthrate, labor shortages, and government malfeasance would be laughable if it weren’t so dire. But this is the very promise advocated by groups like Sanseitō. These parties know full well that foreigners are not to blame for the complexities of life here. But these strange newcomers make a great tool for advancing the cause of right-wing politicians.

The Genetic Culture Fallacy

The second deception that must be confronted is the Genetic Culture Fallacy, the belief that skin color and other physical attributes are invariably linked with human actions. Japan’s right-wing adherents are not alone in this delusion. Fear of the “other” goes back to mankind’s tribal days, when you never knew if that group just beyond the ridge line with spears in hand was a danger or not. Better safe than sorry. Better to teach your kids to shun those outside the village. Better to declare war if “they” cross some invisible boundary line.

There is no guarantee that someone who is part of your immediate genetic community will be more trustworthy or compatible than someone who just arrived on an overseas flight. Like all nations, Japan has its share of homegrown thugs. Even if you ignore the extremes, I personally know many Japanese citizens who grew up here only to flee because “I never really fit in.” There is also the case where the third- or fourth-generation offspring of those who left Japan decades ago return “home” only to discover that they have nothing in common with their Japanese “family” beyond similar chromosomes.

Foreigners don’t have cooties that will infect Japan just by being here. That being said, many who make the move to Japan bring new ideas and cultural expectations that may conflict with Japanese social conventions. There is value in regularly examining a nation’s cultural and societal standards to understand how they differ from the behaviors and expectations, both social and political, that exist in other countries. There will be differences, and it might be beneficial to your citizens to remind them from time to time just how good they have things culturally.

However, right-wing groups play up these differences to convince voters that they are in danger, DANGER! They do so with shallow, generic platitudes and meaningless word games. For example, Sanseitō’s web site lists the following “traditional values” that must be protected against foreign adulteration: harmony (調和), equality (平等), cooperation (協調), and altruism (利他の精神), as if writing them in kanji makes them uniquely Japanese. Anyone who has read up on Japan’s Warring States period knows that these enlightened values ebb and flow in all societies. To claim that Japan has a monopoly on such traits, especially one based on blood ties, is absurd. Teaching such things to school children harkens back to those tribes of yore and their dread of different-looking hunting parties over the next hill. Instilling a fear of “them” based on supposedly indelible DNA-linked traits is a great way to embitter your populace and heap false pride on the nation.

The Politician’s Dream Scenario Fallacy

The third deception is the Politician’s Dream Scenario Fallacy, the insidious idea that sudden top-down societal changes imposed by elected leaders are always positive and free from unexpected consequences. This is the promise of most politicians: I am here to fix your problems, quickly, and at no cost to you. Often, such promises are issued with the best of intentions. Most politicians in Japan really do want to help the public. They thought and they thought and they thought, then came up with a solution for one of society’s vexing problems, a solution that is just so fantastic, it is absolutely sure to work as planned.

The problem is that abrupt, top-down change always comes with unintended consequences, especially when instituted by individuals who are not responsible for the long-term results. The societal consequences are concerning enough when kind-hearted politicians and bureaucrats are trying to carry out the will of the populace. When you throw an axe-to-grind into the mix, those negative sentiments come along for the ride, impacting both the programs and the people they claim to benefit.

The ultimate example of this is the Russian Revolution of 1917. Promised as a way bring justice to the downtrodden, the entire enterprise ruined a once-great nation, roasting it slowly over a barbecue pit of anger and resentment. Worse still, it never fulfilled the original promise, that of bringing equality to the population. Instead, those who craved power got the spoils and used the nation’s resources to destroy “the workers of the world” with a malevolence that went far beyond anything the Tsars could dish out.

Japan’s right-wing parties do not exhibit the bolsheviks’ desire for world revolution and domination, but they are making promises to the local downtrodden, assuring them that their rights will be restored once the foreign contamination is dealt with. Offering voters the low-hanging fruit of salvation by deportation conveys a utopian fantasy, one where citizens frolic in peace and prosperity all day, unencumbered by vile foreign invaders. As with the Russian variant, it’s doomed to fail since foreign residents are not the true cause of Japan’s current crop of difficulties. It is a dream scenario that could quickly turn into a nightmare if not corrected early.

As a foreign resident, I am not too concerned about the impact of Sanseitō’s policies on visa-holders. Even with fifteen seats in the Diet’s upper house, their political influence is limited. And I am quite sure that citizens who are comfortable with current immigration trends vastly outnumber those who align with the core principles of ultra-right parties. But I am very worried about how such groups can pollute the minds of voters and citizens with these destructive fallacies. Tinted as they are with just enough truth to make them palatable, these homegrown false beliefs can do way more damage than anything passing through the nation’s immigration gates.

[Image Credits: Scone/photo-ac]