Its leader is a former supermarket manager who created his political party on YouTube in the depths of the coronavirus pandemic and campaigned on the Trumpian message “Japanese First.”

The Sanseito party tapped into discontent over issues galvanizing voters worldwide: inflation, immigration and a political class dismissed as out of touch.

The fringe far-right Sanseito party emerged as one of the biggest winners in Japan's upper house election, gaining support with warnings of a "silent invasion" of immigrants.