I was fascinated to read Ned Temko’s column today about “Japanese MAGA” – the rise of the populist far-right Sanseito party, which just went from one member to 14 in the upper chamber of parliament. We’re seeing MAGA look-alikes spring up around the world, but the Japanese version struck me as curious. Japan, after all, has low levels of immigration. Immigrants make up under 3% of the population, as Ned points out.

Still, his piece brought me right back to my two-week trip to Japan in 2002 with a journalists’ group. Japan’s adherence to tradition rang through loud and clear, including in the dearth of women in the newsroom we visited. The challenge for Japanese politicians today is rooted in more universal themes, as Ned writes: a need to “reengage with voters who feel economically stuck, unhopeful about their future, and unwilling to trust the same old politicians to improve things.”

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Editor’s note: A story in yesterday’s Daily, by Cameron Joseph, was initially published without his byline.