Sanseito Aims to Boost Lower House Seats by 10-Fold

By Barrier Free Japan, Jiji

January 23 2026

TOKYO – Sanseito aims to boost the number of its House of Representatives seats by 10-fold in next month’s election for the all-important parliamentary chamber in Japan, in order to gain momentum to realize its policies, Sohei Kamiya, leader of the rising opposition party, said in an interview.

For this Lower House election, Sanseito has released two posters, one in Japanese which says “Each and every person is Japan”, and one in English which says “I am Japan”.

“Our goal is to secure 30 seats,” Kamiya said. “We hope to be in a position where bills can’t pass without our party’s support,” he said.
   Sanseito made big advances in last year’s election for the House of Councillors, the upper parliamentary chamber. Kamiya said the upcoming election will “determine whether we can compete with other parties on equal footing in the Lower House.”
   “Our party’s plan to field candidates in all prefectures will allow us to dig up votes,” he said. “The deciding factor on whether we will secure a victory will be on whether we can increase voter turnout beyond the levels of the Upper House election.”
   Asked about whether his party will consider joining the ruling coalition, Kamiya said, “We’d like to assess the election results and figure out what to do.”