Politics: more attention needed

By Richard North - February 9, 2026

Such is the parochial nature of the legacy media that, while if offers saturation coverage of the latest development of the Starmer/Mandelson imbroglio – with the resignation of Morgan McSweeney – reports on the outcome of the snap general election in Japan are thin on the ground.

In fact, it is fair to say that coverage of Japan’s performance in the Winter Olympics is getting far more attention than the election which, in the majority of national newspapers, doesn’t warrant a mention.

One place that goes against the trend and does offer a fairly comprehensive report is the BBC website, which tells us that Japan’s ruling party, led by prime minister Sanae Takaichi, “is on course to win Sunday’s snap election by a landslide”.

The coalition led by Takaichi’s Liberal Democrat Party (LDP) has won 352 of 465 seats in Japan’s House of Representatives, figures collated by public broadcaster NHK suggest, with the LDP alone securing a majority of 316.

In what has been described as a “big gamble”, the country’s first female prime minister had sought a clear public mandate by calling the election just four months after becoming party leader, with a promise to step down if her party failed to secure a majority.

Not that you would know it from the absence of any significant coverage in the British media, there is obviously a story here. But, according to the BBC – which has cited a single voter to represent the whole of Japan – the reason for the contest (and Takaichi’s electoral success) is largely economic.

“People want their lives to be better and more comfortable because we are so accustomed to not having inflation [costs rising]… so people are very worried”, says Ritsuko Ninomiya, a voter in Tokyo, who then goes on to tell the BBC, “I think we need a long-term solution rather than short-term fixes”.

We are thus informed that Takaichi’s enthusiasm, populist spending promises and nationalist rhetoric appear to have energised voters. Only later in the piece do we also learn that Takaichi has also pushed to toughen the immigration system, review rules around foreign ownership of Japanese land, and tackle any non-payments of tax and health insurance by foreign nationals.

Nevertheless, our national broadcaster is quick to play down the relevance of such issues, telling us that in a country where only 3 percent of the population are foreign nationals, critics have accused Takaichi of creating anxiety and division.

The low-key “take” on immigration, however, might seem at odds with the social media coverage of the election campaign, where the antics of third-world migrants are given prominence, to the extent that one might gain the impression that the issue has been a major feature of the campaign.

Although appearances can be deceptive – especially on social media it seems in this case that the mood has been captured correctly, corroborated by no less an authority than the Financial Times.

In an article two days ago, headed: Sanae Takaichi taps anxiety over foreigners to gain Japan electoral edge”, the sub-head tells us: “Immigration is a central battleground in Sunday’s election despite its vital role in the world’s fourth-largest economy”. So much for the BBC’s reporting.

The proximate cause of the elevation of this campaign issue is, apparently, a more than 10 percent annual increase in the foreign labour force in recent years. Although the FT avers that this has been “a lifeline amid a shrinking and ageing population”, to Takaichi, and many other candidates across both mainstream and fringe parties, the arrivals pose a threat to social stability.

The paper quotes Tamayo Marukawa, a candidate for Takaichi’s LDP and former television announcer, speaking on the campaign trail in Tokyo’s Shibuya city. “There are increasing numbers of foreigners in this town”, she says, local residents felt “anxious and confused” when foreigners “came into the areas where they live”.

Marukawa’s remarks, along with the tone of the election, we are told by the FT, come as the reality of foreign arrivals meets a society that has long cherished its homogeneity and assumed that most foreign residents would only be there for the short-term.

Actually, there’s a lot more to it than that, according to Grok when asked to elaborate on the problems caused by immigrants (perceived or otherwise) in Japan.

The AI summary readily acknowledges that such problems have become a prominent topic in public discourse, politics, and media, and especially from mid-2025 onward. This has been amplified by social media, populist parties like Sanseito (with its “Japanese First” platform), and from the Takaichi’s LDP.

Concerns, it says, are often perceived or amplified rather than always backed by proportional statistical evidence. Official data (e.g., from police white papers and Ministry of Justice reports) show that foreign nationals account for roughly 5-6 percent of arrests for penal code offences (above their ~3.2 percent population share), with many involving non-residents (tourists/overstayers) or immigration violations rather than violent crime.

Public perception has shifted following visible incidents, rapid demographic change, and economic pressures, with concern listed in five main categories. These take in public safety and crime; cultural and social differences, including “nuisance behaviour”; perceived abuse of social systems and “unfairness”; economic and property impacts; and the broader social cohesion and identity issues.

In the last category, there is considerable anxiety about Japan becoming “multiethnic” like Europe, losing cultural homogeneity, or facing long-term “social breakdown”. Europe is often referenced as a cautionary tale. Concerns also include fears for children (e.g., safety in schools and neighbourhoods) and community harmony.

Polls from late 2025 show majority support for tougher measures: e.g., 66 percent backed Takaichi’s stricter policies (Asahi Shimbun, Nov 2025); 59 percent opposed actively accepting foreign workers (Yomiuri, Dec 2025, up from 46 percent in 2024); around 56 percent wanted fewer visitors/immigrants; NHK polls showed 70 percent supporting higher bars for citizenship.

One can see why the BBC does not want to emphasise this dimension. The idea that a party that lost its majority in both houses of parliament in 2024 can come storming back two years later with a supermajority, by focusing on a hard-line anti-immigration agenda, is not something it would wish to broadcast.

Already, however, after her election in 2024, Takaichi created a new ministerial office to find ways to realise a “society of well-ordered and harmonious coexistence”.

The new head, Onoda Kimi, convened a ministerial council meeting on “Acceptance of Foreign Nationals and the Realisation of a Society of Well-Ordered and Harmonious Coexistence” with an aim of implementing changes in policies on immigration and tourism in the next fiscal year.

Now, Takaichi has a mandate to go much further, and her win might provide a lesson for Reform UK (and the Conservatives, if they wish to take heed of it), that a party can succeed on an anti-immigration ticket. And bearing in mind that many of the concerns expressed in Japan are mirrored in the UK – with a much higher proportion of foreign nationals – the parallels cannot be ignored.

Interestingly, Takaichi is also taking a tough line with relations on China, while maintaining a strong pro-US/pro-Trump stance, which has had the two leaders meeting in Tokyo, and the US president openly endorsing the Japanese prime minister’s campaign.

Such an endorsement might not have quite the same resonance in the UK and relations with China are rarely a major election issue, but the commonality on the approach to immigration could win votes.

Certainly, the United States gets the message that Japan is a useful ally, so it might be an idea if we could drag ourselves away from the navel-gazing over Starmer and pay more attention to the affairs of another island nation, the other side of the world.