Japan’s Sanseito Party Keeps Momentum Going, Increases Seats in House of Representatives

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:02 JST, February 9, 2026

Sanseito has once again boosted its numbers in the House of Representatives, winning 15 seats from the three it secured in the lower house election in 2024 and preserving its momentum from the House of Councilors election last year.

The party’s goal for the lower house election on Sunday was to win 30 seats and receive more than 9 million votes in the proportional representation segments. The party fielded 190 candidates overall — 182 in single-seat constituencies and eight in the proportional representation races.

Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya initially spoke about not fielding candidates in constituencies in which there were candidates from other parties with similar policies.

However, when attention was drawn to the confrontation between the Liberal Democratic Party and the Centrist Reform Alliance (CRA), Kamiya decided to field the second largest number of candidates of any opposition party.

“We’ll make our presence felt with the power of our numbers,” he said.

In his street speeches across the country, Kamiya touted his party as a third force.“The [coalition of the] LDP and the JIP [Japan Innovation Party] alone isn’t good enough. The CRA is a mishmash that only wants to survive. If there are only those two choices, there’s no future for Japan,” he said.

Regarding party policies, Kamiya spoke of abolishing the consumption tax and following an aggressive fiscal policy. He also appealed for a review of government policies on non-Japanese residents, saying, “We won’t make Japan a country of immigrants.”

During the early phase of the election campaign, Kamiya claimed that 40% of Sanseito’s policies are the same as those of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

As for cooperation with the ruling coalition parties, he told a TV Tokyo television program on Sunday evening that “we’ll handle that on a case-by-case basis.”