Japan First Party
The Japan First Party is a far-right political party in Japan founded by Makoto Sakurai.
History
On August 15, 2016, Sakurai announced in front of a crowd at the annual gathering to protest the Hantenren in front of Yasukuni Shrine that he would not stop at the Tokyo election, and would create a new political party to prioritize and benefit the people of Japan over foreign powers. After first jokingly announcing the new party name as "A meeting to bring the metropolitan government back into the hands of the people", he formally announced on August 29, 2016, the party name "Japan First Party".The JFP held its first convention in APA Hotel on February 26, 2017, and Sakurai, who was until then de facto leader, formally became leader of the JFP.
As of April 27, 2017, there are about 1800 party members, but no members of the party in any government office. The same day, Mikio Okamura, sitting beside Sakurai, formally announced at a press conference his plan to run for the upcoming Tokyo Prefecture Legislature Election in July 2017.
In 2021, Makoto Sakurai ran for the Tokyo gubernatorial election and received 178,784 votes.
The Japan First Party ran in the 2021 Japanese general election running a total of 5 candidates, with 33,611 votes and Makoto Sakurai having 9,449 votes in the Tokyo 15th District.
The Japan First Party ran in the 2022 Japanese [House of Councillors election] running a total of 10 candidates, with 109,046 proportional votes and 74,097 constituency votes.