A Japanese political party seemingly inspired by U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda made significant gains in the country’s parliamentary elections on Sunday. 

Japan’s relatively new Sanseito party won 14 seats in Sunday’s upper house election. It was a sizable addition for the party, which was founded in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Reuters. Previously, the Sanseito party only won a single seat in Japan’s 2022 election. If the new political party wanted to officially announce its arrival on Japan’s political scene, Sanseito made it on Sunday.

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It marks the 18th seat won overall for the party, which also has three seats in Japan’s powerful lower house. It also won over 2% of the vote in the 2022 election, which qualified Sanseito to become an official political party in Japan. It won the third-highest amount of opposition votes in the election, coming behind only the well-established Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Democratic Party for the People parties, according to the Japan Times.

“The phrase Japanese First was meant to express rebuilding Japanese people’s livelihoods by resisting globalism,” said Sohei Kamiya, the leader of the Sanseito party, to Japanese network Nippon Television.

However, he did emphasize that he was not opposed to foreigners, just advocating for improvements to Japan’s immigration system. He also specified the essence of “Japanese First” was predicated on standing up “against globalism and protecting the lives of Japanese citizens.”

“I am not saying that we should completely ban foreigners or that every foreigner should get out of Japan,” Kamiya noted. 

“The notion that people who want to discriminate and kick foreigners out are flocking to Sanseito is, I think, a little wrong. We aren’t that kind of party,” he added.

Sunday’s victory granted the party enough seats in the upper house to have the authority to draft nonspending bills, surpassing Japan’s 10-seat requirement threshold, the Japan Times reported. Next is winning 20 seats, allowing the Sanseito party to submit budget bills. 

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However, Kamiya has bigger visions for the party.  

“If Sanseito wins 50 or 60 seats in the next Lower House election, I think it may be possible to form a coalition government with small parties, like European (governments), in the future. (Sanseito) will aim to be a part of that,” said Kamiya.