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.[6] After first jokingly announcing the new party name as "A meeting to bring the metropolitan government back into the hands of the people" (都政を国民の手に取り戻す会), he formally announced on August 29, 2016, the party name "Japan First Party" (日本第一党).[7]
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.[8]
As of April 27, 2017, there are about 1800 party members, but no members of the party in any government office.[9] The same day, Mikio Okamura (岡村幹雄), sitting beside Sakurai, formally announced at a press conference his plan to run for the upcoming Tokyo Prefecture Legislature Election (ja) in July 2017.[10]
In 2021, Makoto Sakurai ran for the Tokyo gubernatorial election and received 178,784 votes (2.92％).
The Japan First Party ran in the 2021 Japanese general election running a total of 5 candidates, with 33,611 votes (0.52%) and Makoto Sakurai having 9,449 votes (3.96%) 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 (0.21%) and 74,097 constituency votes (0.14%).
Policies
Many of the promises from Sakurai's campaign in the Tokyo gubernatorial election have been included in the policies outlined by the JFP such as the exclusion of foreigners from receiving welfare. The policies include the rewriting of the Japanese constitution from scratch to put the Emperor as the head of state, install a military, and make defense of the country a civic duty.[11] JFP is also evaluated as an alt-right group.[12]
