Summary Sanseito, birthed on YouTube, makes election gains

Party has also pledged tax cuts and welfare spending

Leader says he wants to expand lower house presence

TOKYO, July 21 (Reuters) – The fringe far-right Sanseito party emerged as one of the biggest winners in Japan’s upper house election on Sunday, gaining support with warnings of a “silent invasion” of immigrants, and pledges for tax cuts and welfare spending.

Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the party broke into mainstream politics with its “Japanese First” campaign.

Sign up here.

The party won 14 seats adding to the single lawmaker it secured in the 248-seat chamber three years ago. It has only three seats in the more powerful lower house.

“The phrase Japanese First was meant to express rebuilding Japanese people’s livelihoods by resisting globalism. I am not saying that we should completely ban foreigners or that every foreigner should get out of Japan,” Sohei Kamiya, the party’s 47-year-old leader, said in an interview with local broadcaster Nippon Television after the election.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner Komeito lost their majority in the upper house, leaving them further beholden to opposition support following a lower house defeat in October.

“Sanseito has become the talk of the town, and particularly here in America, because of the whole populist and anti-foreign sentiment. It’s more of a weakness of the LDP and Ishiba than anything else,” said Joshua Walker, head of the U.S. non-profit Japan Society.

In polling ahead of Sunday’s election, 29% of voters told NHK that social security and a declining birthrate were their biggest concern. A total of 28% said they worried about rising rice prices, which have doubled in the past year. Immigration was in joint fifth place with 7% of respondents pointing to it.

“We were criticized as being xenophobic and discriminatory. The public came to understand that the media was wrong and Sanseito was right,” Kamiya said.

Kamiya’s message grabbed voters frustrated with a weak economy and currency that has lured tourists in record numbers in recent years, further driving up prices that Japanese can ill afford, political analysts say.

Japan’s fast-ageing society has also seen foreign-born residents hit a record of about 3.8 million last year, though that is just 3% of the total population, a fraction of the corresponding proportion in the United States and Europe.

INSPIRED BY TRUMP

Item 1 of 5 Japan’s Sanseito party leader Sohei Kamiya delivers a speech during the party’s rally in Tokyo, Japan, July 21, 2025, a day after the upper house election. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon [1/5] Japan’s Sanseito party leader Sohei Kamiya delivers a speech during the party’s rally in Tokyo, Japan, July 21, 2025, a day after the upper house election. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

Kamiya, a former supermarket manager and English teacher, told Reuters before the election that he had drawn inspiration from U.S. President Donald Trump’s “bold political style”.

He has also drawn comparisons with Germany’s AfD and Reform UK although right-wing populist policies have yet to take root in Japan as they have in Europe and the United States.

Post-election, Kamiya said he plans to follow the example of Europe’s emerging populist parties by building alliances with other small parties rather than work with an LDP administration, which has ruled for most of Japan’s postwar history.

Sanseito’s focus on immigration has already shifted Japan’s politics to the right. Just days before the vote, Ishiba’s administration announced a new government taskforce to fight “crimes and disorderly conduct” by foreign nationals and his party has promised a target of “zero illegal foreigners”.

Kamiya, who won the party’s first seat in 2022 after gaining notoriety for appearing to call for Japan’s emperor to take concubines, has tried to tone down some controversial ideas formerly embraced by the party.

During the campaign, Kamiya, however, faced a backlash for branding gender equality policies a mistake that encourage women to work and keep them from having children.

To soften what he said was his “hot-blooded” image and to broaden support beyond the men in their twenties and thirties that form the core of Sanseito’s support, Kamiya fielded a raft of female candidates on Sunday.

Those included the single-named singer Saya, who clinched a seat in Tokyo.

Like other opposition parties, Sanseito called for tax cuts and an increase in child benefits, policies that led investors to fret about Japan’s fiscal health and massive debt pile, but unlike them it has a far bigger online presence from where it can attack Japan’s political establishment.

Its YouTube channel has 400,000 followers, more than any other party on the platform and three times that of the LDP, according to socialcounts.org.

Sanseito’s upper house breakthrough, Kamiya said, is just the beginning.

“We are gradually increasing our numbers and living up to people’s expectations. By building a solid organization and securing 50 or 60 seats, I believe our policies will finally become reality,” he said.

Reporting by Tim Kelly and John Geddie and Kantaro Komiya; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Dale Hudson and Lincoln Feast.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. , opens new tab

Istanbul, Turkey

Reuters

Russia and Ukraine discussed further prisoner swaps on Wednesday at a brief session of peace talks in Istanbul, but the sides remained far apart on ceasefire terms and a possible meeting of their leaders.

“We have progress on the humanitarian track, with no progress on a cessation of hostilities,” Ukraine’s chief delegate Rustem Umerov said after talks that lasted just 40 minutes.

Chief of the Turkish General Staff, Metin Gurak, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Turkey’s intelligence chief, Ibrahim Kalin, attend a meeting at Ciragan Palace on the day of the third round of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, in Istanbul, Turkey, on 23rd July, 2025. PICTURE: Reuters/Murad Sezer

He said Ukraine had proposed a meeting before the end of August between Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin. He added: “By agreeing to this proposal, Russia can clearly demonstrate its constructive approach.”

Russia’s chief delegate Vladimir Medinsky said the point of a leaders’ meeting should be to sign an agreement, not to “discuss everything from scratch”.

He renewed Moscow’s call for a series of short ceasefires of 24-48 hours to enable the retrieval of bodies. Ukraine says it wants an immediate and much longer ceasefire.

The talks took place just over a week after US President Donald Trump threatened heavy new sanctions on Russia and countries that buy its exports unless a peace deal was reached within 50 days.

There was no sign of any progress towards that goal, although both sides said there was discussion of further humanitarian exchanges following a series of prisoner swaps, the latest of which took place on Wednesday.

We rely on our readers to fund Sight’s work – become a financial supporter today!

Medinsky said the negotiators agreed to exchange at least 1,200 more prisoners of war from each side, and Russia had offered to hand over another 3,000 Ukrainian bodies.

He said Moscow was working through a list of 339 names of Ukrainian children that Kyiv accuses it of abducting. Russia denies that charge and says it has offered protection to children separated from their parents during the war.

“Some of the children have already been returned back to Ukraine. Work is under way on the rest. If their legal parents, close relatives, representatives are found, these children will immediately return home,” Medinsky said.

Umerov said Kyiv was expecting “further progress” on POWs, adding: “We continue to insist on the release of civilians, including children.” Ukrainian authorities say at least 19,000 children have been forcibly deported.

Shortest talks yet

Before the talks, the Kremlin had played down expectations, describing the two sides’ positions as diametrically opposed and saying no one should expect miracles.

At 40 minutes, the meeting was even shorter than the two sides’ previous encounters on May 16 and June 2, which lasted a combined total of under three hours.

Oleksandr Bevz, a member of the Ukrainian delegation, said Kyiv had proposed a Putin-Zelenskiy meeting in August because that would fall within the deadline set by Trump for a deal.

Putin turned down a previous challenge from Zelenskiy to meet in person and has said he does not see him as a legitimate leader because Ukraine, which is under martial law, did not hold new elections when Zelenskiy’s five-year mandate expired last year.

Trump has patched up relations with Zelenskiy after a public row with him at the White House in February, and has lately expressed growing frustration with Putin.

Three sources close to the Kremlin told Reuters last week that Putin, unfazed by Trump’s ultimatum, would keep fighting in Ukraine until the West engaged on his terms for peace, and that his territorial demands may widen as Russian forces advance.

– Additional reporting by HUSEYIN HAYATSEVER AND TUVAN GUMRUKCU in Ankara, Turkey; OLENA HARMASH in Kyiv, Ukraine; YULIIA DYSA in Warsaw, Poland; DMITRY ANTONOV, ANTON KOLODYAZHNYY and ANASTASIA LYRCHIKOVA in Moscow, Russia; and FILIPP LEBEDEV in London, UK

TOKYO, July 23 (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba denied on Wednesday he had decided to quit after a source and media reports said he planned to announce his resignation to take responsibility for a bruising upper house election defeat.

Asked about media reports that he had expressed his intention to step down as early as this month, the 68-year-old leader Ishiba told reporters at party headquarters on Wednesday: “I have never made such a statement…The facts reported in the media are completely unfounded.”

Sign up here.

The reports came after Ishiba and Trump unveiled a trade deal on Tuesday that lowers tariffs on imports of Japanese autos and spares Tokyo from punishing new levies on other goods.

Ishiba chose not to quit straight after the election to prevent political instability as the August 1 deadline for clinching the trade deal approached, a source close to the prime minister said, asking not to be identified because they are not authorised to talk to the media.

Ishiba will announce his resignation next month, Japanese media reported earlier.

Japan’s Prime Minister and President of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Shigeru Ishiba looks on after meeting with the party’s executives at the LDP headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, July 23, 2025. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

His departure less than a year after taking office would trigger a succession battle within the ruling Liberal Democratic party as it contends with challenges from new political parties, particularly on the right, that are chipping away at its support.

Among them is the “Japanese First” Sanseito far-right group which surged in Sunday’s vote, growing its representation in the 248-seat upper house to 14 from one. The party has attracted voters with pledges to curb immigration, slash taxes, and provide financial relief to households squeezed by rising prices.

Ishiba, a former defence minister who failed four times to win the party leadership, defeated hardline conservative Sanae Takaichi in his fifth attempt in a runoff last year.

Whoever succeeds him as head of the LDP, which has ruled Japan for most of the post war period, would have to govern without a majority in either house of parliament following the government’s lower house election defeat in October.

Their immediate priority would be to secure support from enough opposition party lawmakers to win confirmation as prime minister.

Any incoming leader is unlikely to call a general election straight away, in order to bolster the party’s appeal before seeking a mandate from voters, the source said.

Reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama, Leika Kihara and Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Stephen Coates and Raju Gopalakrishnan

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. , opens new tab

U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 22, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura License this content on Reuters Connect , opens new tab

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. , opens new tab

Kylie MacLellan Thomson Reuters Kylie is the Global Live Pages Editor, leading a team providing real-time multimedia coverage of the biggest breaking stories worldwide. She previously worked on the UK Breaking News team, and spent eight years in Westminster as a UK political correspondent – a period which included the Scottish independence referendum, Brexit and several general elections. She originally joined Reuters as a graduate trainee and has also covered investment banking.

Farouq Suleiman Thomson Reuters Farouq is a Live Page Journalist, covering Reuters international news stories. He previously worked as a correspondent on the UK Breaking News team, reporting on general news across the United Kingdom.

Summary Zelenskiy quotes official as saying new talks in Turkey on Wednesday

Ukrainian president had called for more momentum in talks

Kremlin says two sides have ‘diametrically opposed’ positions

July 21 (Reuters) – Peace talks between Ukraine and Russia – the first in seven weeks – are planned for Wednesday in Turkey, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy quoted a senior Kyiv official as saying on Monday.

Zelenskiy appealed earlier in the day for greater momentum in negotiations.

Sign up here.

Russia’s state TASS news agency quoted a source in Turkey as saying the talks would take place on Wednesday. The RIA news agency, also quoting a source, said they would take place over two days, Thursday and Friday.

The Kremlin said it was waiting for confirmation of the date of the talks but said the two sides were “diametrically opposed” in their positions on how to end the war.

Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address that he spoke with Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, on Monday in preparation for a prisoner exchange and another meeting with Russia in Turkey.

“Umerov reported that the meeting is planned for Wednesday. More details will follow tomorrow,” Zelenskiy said.

Umerov, previously defence minister, was appointed to his current role last week and headed the first two rounds of talks with Russia.

Ukraine has backed U.S. calls for an immediate ceasefire. Moscow says certain arrangements must be put in place before a ceasefire can be introduced.

Russian forces have launched sustained attacks on Ukrainian cities in recent weeks, including missiles and hundreds of drones on Monday night that killed two people and injured 15. Ukraine has also launched long-range drone attacks.

Zelenskiy said: “The agenda from our side is clear: the return of prisoners of war, the return of children abducted by Russia, and the preparation of a leaders’ meeting.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during a joint press statement with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on the first day of the two-day Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC2025), on plans for the reconstruction of Ukraine, in Rome, Italy, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Remo Casilli/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

Russian President Vladimir Putin , who is under increasing pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to show progress towards ending the conflict, turned down a previous challenge from Zelenskiy to meet him in person.

Putin has said he does not see Zelenskiy as a legitimate leader because Ukraine, which is under martial law, did not hold new elections when his five-year mandate expired last year.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “There is our draft memorandum, there is a draft memorandum that has been handed over by the Ukrainian side. There is to be an exchange of views and talks on these two drafts, which are diametrically opposed so far.”

NO CEASEFIRE BREAKTHROUGH

Ukraine and Russia have held two rounds of talks in Istanbul, on May 16 and June 2, that led to the exchange of thousands of prisoners of war and the remains of dead soldiers.

But the two sides have made no breakthrough towards a ceasefire or a settlement to end almost three and a half years of war. The Kremlin says Ukraine must abandon four regions Moscow says have been incorporated into Russia.

Trump said last week he would impose new sanctions in 50 days on Russia and countries that buy its exports if there is no deal before then to end the conflict.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, speaking in Kyiv after talks with Zelenskiy, noted Russia’s refusal to implement an immediate ceasefire as well as its “maximalist” demands.

“Discussions must begin, but on a basis that respects the interests of both parties, because diplomacy is not submission,” he told a news conference. “And diplomacy begins with meetings at the level of heads of state and government, something Volodymyr Zelenskiy has repeatedly called for.”

Barrot said he favoured devising an even tougher sanctions package if Putin did not agree to a ceasefire.

Reporting by Dmitry Antonov in Moscow and Yuliia Dysa in Warsaw and Makini Brice; writing by Mark Trevelyan and Ron Popeski; editing by Mark Heinrich, Marguerita Choy and Cynthia Osterman

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. , opens new tab