Politics
How a Tokyo-Born Outsider Became the Face of Czech Nationalism
A Czech leader with Japanese-Korean heritage is running against immigration.
Tomio Okamura, leader of the Freedom and Direct Democracy party, in Prague.
Photographer: Martin Divisek/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Tomio Okamura’s background is about as multicultural as you can get. The son of a Czech mother and a Japanese-Korean father, he suffered racist bullying in Japan and the Czech Republic that was so severe he developed a stutter and wet his bed until the age of 14.
Which may or may not help explain why his Czech political party is adamantly opposed to immigration, wants the country to leave the European Union and compares Islam to “Hitler-style Nazism.” The message is resonating: Okamura’s Freedom and Direct Democracy may become the fourth-strongest party in parliament after next week’s elections.