Its leader is a former supermarket manager who created his political party on YouTube in the depths of the coronavirus pandemic and campaigned on the Trumpian message “Japanese First.”

A re-run of last summer’s turmoil where a rise in the Japanese yen caused chaos throughout financial markets is threatened by this weekend’s Japanese elections, a strategist warns.

Japan’s ruling coalition is likely to lose its majority in the upper house, exit polls showed after Sunday’s election, potentially heralding political turmoil as a tariff deadline with the United States looms.

Shigeru Ishiba of the long-governing Liberal Democratic Party could face calls to resign if his party fares poorly in Sunday’s Upper House elections.

Global hedge funds offloaded Japanese equities at the sharpest pace in almost two-and-a-half months last week, just ahead of the country's upper house election on Sunday, Goldman Sachs said in a note.