In the scorching summer streets of Tokyo, the Senate election posters adorned with colorful candidate posters were plastered across the city. The battle was fiercely contested. Candidates from various parties ran tirelessly under the scorching sun, and Japanese Prime Minister and head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Taro Kono, had been canvassing in various locations for days, repeatedly urging, “This is the most critical battle, please help us.”
On July 20th, Japan’s 27th Senate election took place. This election was seen as a test of whether Kono’s cabinet would survive, with his support rate dropping to its lowest point since he became Prime Minister. In the House of Representatives elections held last October, the coalition formed by the Liberal Democratic Party and the Public Interest Party failed to secure more than half of the seats, becoming a minority government. Kono set the threshold for winning the Senate election as the “decisive line” of victory or defeat.
The Japanese Senate has 248 seats, with members serving six-year terms and being reelected every three years. This year’s election will compete for 125 seats, including those that are due for reelection and one additional seat for a by-election. Currently, the Liberal and Public Interest Parties hold 75 seats out of the total 75 seats available.
On July 19th, 2025, local time, in Ginza, Tokyo, citizens listened to a speech by a politician. Photo by Visual China.
“Even if a monkey falls off a tree, it’s still a monkey. But once a politician loses an election, they become just another ordinary person,” said Naoki Ikegami, a resident of Tokyo, when talking to The Paper (www.thapaper.cn). He mentioned this common saying about Japan, “Rising prices are shaking our foundation of life, and while campaign speeches are inspiring, how many politicians truly face the challenges of our people’s lives?” “I always feel there’s a mismatch between the lives of the public and political discourse.”
This election saw price increases and economic prosperity as significant campaign issues. Kono promised to raise wages as a top campaign promise and planned to distribute cash subsidies to all Japanese citizens. The opposition parties proposed tax cuts or the abolition of consumption taxes.
It is worth mentioning that the right-wing party “Kansei Party,” which has been in existence for only five years, made a claim during the election campaign to prioritize “Japanese citizens” and strictly manage foreigners, sparking significant reactions within Japan. On July 15th, the Japanese government established a new office, the “Office for Promoting Orderly Coexistence with Foreigners,” as a rapid response to the election campaign.
As the issue of “foreigner issues” has fermented on social media, a large amount of negative comments and false information targeting foreigners have emerged, causing many to worry about the escalation of “xenophobic sentiments” under the political agenda. However, the actual feelings of many foreigners living in Japan diverge from the hostile rhetoric portrayed online.
On July 19th, 2025, local time, in Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan, Japanese Prime Minister and ruling Democratic Party President Yoshihide Suga delivered a street speech one day before the Senate election. Photo by Visual China.
“Save Your Rice,” Politicians “Spend Money”
Having moved to Tokyo’s Kita Ward for nearly a decade, Takada enjoys the lively neighborhood life with its strong sense of community. The area is home to a shopping street with both cheap and delicious prepared food and grocery stores, as well as a variety of general merchandise stores. Daily, he can easily buy ingredients at these small shops to prepare his meals for the day. However, Takada told The Paper that this year’s food price increases are more pronounced, necessitating him to visit several supermarkets to find discounts and special offers, “I can no longer shop as easily as before.”
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) has risen continuously for six months since December last year, with an annual growth rate exceeding 3%, mainly due to the price increase of non-fresh food items, especially rice. The so-called “Ryukyu Rice Crisis” has seen rice prices surge since the end of last year, impacting Japan until the government released reserves of rice in spring this year, halting the rising price curve.
What shocked Takada was the long-standing policy of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries to maintain a “reduced farming” policy, which means artificially limiting grain production to maintain high rice prices.
As a result, merely because the supply and demand for rice differ by several hundred thousand tons, people have fallen into the situation of “eating rice sparingly.” “The issue of food is filled with political calculations, yet the public is completely unaware,” she said.
The rice crisis has led to continuous price increases, and Shigeru Ishiba announced in early July that he would change the rice policy, increasing rice production starting from 2025. Upon hearing this news, Naoko slightly breathed a sigh of relief but also raised questions: “Why had we been neglecting it all along?” She also recently saw news about “Japan’s annual tax revenue reaching a record high for five consecutive years,” “With tax revenue at a historical high, why does our dining table seem increasingly tight?”
Naoko reflected on family expenses after the pandemic, noting an increase in utility bills for daily necessities, including increased expenditures on agricultural products such as rice, vegetables, and eggs, as well as doubling in prices for coffee beans and chocolates. However, her husband’s income growth was minimal.
To save money, Naoko bulk-purchases food at supermarket specials, reduces dining out, postpones the upgrade of electronic products… She humorously mentioned a simple frugal trick—”avoid shopping when hungry.” She believes it’s important to cultivate a sense of frugality and hopes to accumulate more savings under this mindset, as she doesn’t hold high expectations for salary increases.
Shigeru Ishiba emphasized during his speech in Kobe City on July 3rd, “We must spare no effort to achieve wage growth surpassing the rise in prices. Next year, we will further significantly increase the level of salaries.” He stressed, “Raising pay is the core of the growth strategy.”
In 2024, Japan’s minimum wage standard reached a historic high, with the national average hourly wage reaching 1055 yen (approximately 51 RMB), an increase of 51 yen over the previous year. For the adjustment for 2025, Akira Maeda, an economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Research Institute, predicted that the average hourly wage would increase by another 57 yen, potentially surpassing this year’s increase.
According to Nikkei, many business operators admit to being puzzled by the setting of unrealistic targets. Takashi Kudo, President of the Federation of Japanese Industrial Organizations, stated: “It is necessary to combine efforts in small and medium-sized enterprises’ productivity enhancement, government support policies, and the establishment of a price transmission mechanism across society to enhance feasibility.”
Analysts believe that before prices can be fully transmitted and productivity can be enhanced, businesses may have to maintain operations through layoffs. Moreover, persistent inflationary pressures will suppress consumption, gradually eroding corporate profit margins and limiting their ability to raise wages, potentially undermining the virtuous cycle of wage and price increases sought by policymakers.
In addition to salary increases, the Liberal Democratic Party has proposed in the Senate election convention to distribute 20,000-40,000 yen in cash to all Japanese citizens. The LDP, which is co-ruling with the Public Ministries Union, has also launched a combination of tax cuts and subsidies to counter rising prices. The opposition parties generally include tax cuts for consumption in their Senate election conventions.
Former Prime Minister of Japan, Yoshihide Suga, asked during the party leader debate in June: “The Liberal Democratic Party and the Public Ministries Union both promise welfare, isn’t this ‘spraying money’?” Yukio Edano, Leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, also raised similar questions. In response, Taro Kono said: “The so-called spraying money policy refers to proposals that neither set core priorities nor prioritize them. In a sense, (the opposition’s proposal) is already close to this nature.”
Four years ago, during the preparatory period for the Liberal Democratic Party’s presidential election and the House of Representatives election, both parties proposed economic measures worth hundreds of billions of yen and tax cuts for consumption. At that time, Yoshihiro Sakurauchi, the Deputy Director-General of the Ministry of Finance, warned in October 2021 that Japan’s fiscal situation was like “Titanic heading towards an iceberg,” criticizing various fiscal policies proposed by politicians as “a battle of spraying money.”
According to a report by Asahi Shimbun, the Japanese government’s debt as a percentage of GDP in 2023 reached a staggering 240%, ranking last among comparable countries and regions.
Despite the public’s anticipation for salary increases, cash handouts, and a reduction in consumption tax, Nagai stated, “How will these promises be fulfilled after the election? It seems like policy implementation is another matter entirely.” Analysts point out that under the minority ruling situation, if opposition parties unite to demand tax cuts during the budget preparation for 2025, it is likely to happen in some form. However, their demands were only made during the period of the Senate election, which has become commonplace for voters.
On July 19, 2025, local time in Niigata, Japan, Yoshihide Noda, the leader of the main opposition party, the Liberal Democratic Party, delivered a street speech one day before the Senate election. The “Japanese First” sentiment is reflected in reality.
The Reality of the “Japanese First” Voice
In this Senate election, the competition in the Tokyo district was exceptionally fierce, with 32 candidates vying for 7 seats, launching their attacks through campaign vehicles and street speeches. The Noda couple knew little about the candidates in their district but indicated they would vote based on the party.
Japanese voters, known for their political disinterest, typically pay little attention to elections. Since 1992, the voting rate for the Senate election has been below 60% for 12 consecutive times, with the previous Senate election in 2019 having a voting rate of 52.05%. This election is expected to see an increase in voter turnout. Within ten days up to July 13, approximately 9.88 million people had already cast their early ballots, accounting for about 9% of the national electorate, an increase of about 27% compared to the same period last year. On July 19, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications reported that as of July 18, more than 21.45 million people had already voted in advance for the Senate election, setting a new historical record.
Beyond the Japanese citizens, this Senate election has also attracted the attention of many foreigners living in Japan.
The emerging right-wing party “Party of Japan” has adopted the slogan “Japanese First,” bringing the issue of “foreigners” into the center of public discourse. The Party advocates against “excessive reception of foreigners,” strictly limits foreign purchases of land and real estate, prudently reviews foreign enterprise acquisitions and infrastructure investments, and reassesses history education and the drafting of a new constitution.
The Party only contests in one district for reelection, aiming to secure six seats. According to a poll by Japanese media on the 13th, including local elections, the Party is expected to win more than ten seats.
Yoshihiro Yamamoto, a political science professor at Japan’s Kobe University, told Bloomberg that the “Party of Japan” will become a pioneer case of anti-globalization politics in Japan.
The call for “Japanese First” has also sparked discussions about social division or the destruction of diversity. However, the Party’s leader, Takashi Sakurauchi, clarified that “Japanese First” was merely a slogan used during the campaign period and did not intend to stir up xenophobic sentiments. At the beginning of this month, during a campaign speech on the streets of Tokyo, protesters holding banners with slogans such as “Humanity is not first or second,” “‘Japanese First’ is just stirring up discrimination, I firmly oppose it,” and others refuted the Party’s exclusionary rhetoric.
Recently, many Chinese residents in Japan have felt an increasing discussion about the foreigner population, which is closely tied to the increase in foreign tourists, students, and permanent residents.
A Chinese tour guide living in Fukuoka told The Paper that he notices foreign tourists are back significantly more than before the pandemic, significantly stimulating the local economy, especially in the catering, hotel, and retail sectors, as tourists return to revive these industries. Meanwhile, there has been an increase in discussions about “foreigners” in society, particularly on social media where some less friendly voices can be heard. “But in reality, most people in Japan are very polite and gentle towards foreigners.”
In Fukuoka, a city with many tourists, the foreigners have become very accustomed to the presence of visitors.
As early as 2003, Japan proposed the “Tourism-Based National Development” strategy, and the Shiba government set a goal to reach 60 million visitors and a consumption amount of 15 trillion yen by 2030. By 2024, the number of international visitors in Japan had reached about 36.87 million, with a consumption amount of 8.1395 trillion yen, both reaching historic highs.
Excessive tourism also poses significant challenges to Japan, especially for popular destinations where tourists congregate, facing challenges such as traffic congestion, noise pollution, and waste management. In the fiscal year 2024 supplementary budget, the Japanese government allocated 15.82 billion yen for “emergency measures to prevent and alleviate excessive tourism and improve the reception environment for foreign tourists.”
On Japanese social media platforms, posts related to foreign nationals not paying their health insurance premiums and students receiving preferential treatment are widely circulated. “I cannot accept the current policy of preferring foreigners,” said Saaya, a candidate from the “Party of Choice” in Tokyo’s district, opening his street speech on the 12th, claiming that “Chinese master’s students can receive up to 2.9 million yen (approximately 130,000 RMB) per year.”
The “Tokyo News” reported that the “distributing 2.9 million yen to Chinese people” mentioned in the speech likely refers to the “Next Generation Researcher Challenge Research Program (SPRING)” established by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to support outstanding students in research. The Human Resources Policy Section of the Ministry clarified: “This is not an exemption system for specific countries.” Although Chinese students make up a higher proportion, other nationalities also benefit, with 60% of the recipients being Japanese. Despite this, similar rumors continue to spread on social media.
Zhang Zhang studied in Tokyo, Japan, from a language school to university graduation, and then pursued a master’s degree.
She introduced to The Paper that, from 2020 to the present, she has received a total of approximately 200,000 Japanese yen in direct non-tax subsidies. The cost of medical expenses is covered by 70% through the National Health Insurance system, with individuals paying the remaining 30%. She noted that policies in recent years have clearly demonstrated Japan’s eagerness for international students and talents, and these preferential treatments and insurance are part of the publicity efforts aimed at attracting people to Japan.
Several Chinese students and residents living and studying in Japan told The Paper that they have not experienced discrimination in Japan for many years, instead feeling an increasing acceptance and inclusivity towards foreigners. They believe that the fermenting topics on social media platforms might be related to elections.
Japanese media reports indicate that amid rising prices and widespread dissatisfaction, the “Party of Progress” has been leveraging the issue of “foreigner privileges” to woo some conservative voters who are disillusioned with the Abe administration. This strategy mirrors the exclusionary policies of right-wing parties in Europe and America. The ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and the Komeito Party may face impacts from such populist issues.