is a Japanese-born Czech

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

politician and entrepreneur. He founded the Czech political parties

Dawn of Direct Democracy Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's horizon ...

and

Freedom and Direct Democracy Freedom and Direct Democracy (, SPD) is a political party in the Czech Republic. It is led by Tomio Okamura and it holds 20 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. The party has been described as right-wing or far-right on the political spectrum. It ...

(SPD). Since October 2013, he has been a member of the

Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic The Chamber of Deputies, officially the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic (, PS PČR), is the lower house of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. The chamber has 200 seats and deputies are elected for four-year terms u ...

(MP), initially for Dawn of Direct Democracy and then from May 2015 for SPD (styled "SPD – Tomio Okamura"), of which he is also leader. He previously served as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

Senator for

Zlín Zlín (in 1949–1989 Gottwaldov; ; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 75,000 inhabitants. It is the seat of the Zlín Region and it lies on the Dřevnice River. It is known as an industrial centre. The development of the modern city ...

district from October 2012 until his election to the Chamber of Deputies a year later.

Early life and background

Okamura was born in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

. His mother, Helena Okamura (born Helena Holíková) is a native of

Moravian Wallachia Moravian Wallachia (, or simply ''Valašsko''; ) is a mountainous ethnoregion located in the easternmost part of Moravia in the Czech Republic, near the Slovakia, Slovak border, roughly centered on the cities Vsetín, Valašské Meziříčí and ...

and moved to Tokyo in 1966 following her marriage to Okamura's half-

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

, half-

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

father, Matsu Okamura. Tomio Okamura lived in Japan for the first ten years of his life before his mother returned with her sons to Czechoslovakia. He spent a part of his childhood in a children's home in Mašťov in the

Ústí nad Labem Region Ústí nad Labem Region or Ústecký Region () is an Regions of the Czech Republic, administrative unit () of the Czech Republic, located in the north-western part of the historical land of Bohemia, and named after the capital, Ústí nad Labem. I ...

, where he was severely bullied, causing him to have a

stutter Stuttering, also known as stammering, is a speech disorder characterized externally by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words, or phrases as well as involuntary silent pauses called blocks in which the person who ...

until the age of 22. After leaving primary school he went on to study chemistry. During his childhood he worked as a popcorn seller at a cinema in Japan.

Business career

He started his business career in 1994 mainly focused on the travel and gastronomy industries. He also started publishing a quarterly ''Pivní magazín'' ("Beer Magazine"). He is the author or co-author of several books. His book ''Tomio Okamura – Český sen'' ("Tomio Okamura – The Czech Dream") became a top 10 bestseller in the Czech Republic in 2010. In Spring 2011 his second book ''Umění vládnout'' ("The Art of Governance") was published. In 2012 he wrote a book ''Umění žít'' ("The Art of Living"). In 2013, he wrote two books – ''Umění přímé demokracie'' ("The Art of Direct Democracy") and ''Velká japonská kuchařka'' ("The Great Japanese Cookbook"). Okamura has links with a number of businesses including the Association of Czech Travel Agencies (), where he was spokesman and vice-president. Other businesses Okamura has run include travel agent ''Miki travel'' and food shop ''Japa''. Okamura was a judge on ''Den D'', the Czech version of British television programme ''

Dragons' Den ''Dragons' Den'' is a reality television program format in which entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to a panel of venture capitalists in the hope of securing investment finance from them. The program originated in 2001 in Japan, where it ...

'', for three series between 2009 and 2010.

Political career

Senate

In June 2012, Okamura, known previously as an advocate of

direct democracy Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the Election#Electorate, electorate directly decides on policy initiatives, without legislator, elected representatives as proxies, as opposed to the representative democracy m ...

, announced his candidacy for the

2012 Czech Senate election Senate elections for a third of the Senate were held in the Czech Republic on 12 and 13 October 2012,Last elections
I ...

as an

independent candidate An independent politician or non-affiliated politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent. Some politicians have polit ...

. In the October election, Okamura led after the first round with 30% of the vote. Okamura won in a run-off against , taking 66% of the vote and winning a seat in the Senate on 20 October 2012. In February 2013 Okamura was among a group of senators to sign a proposal to prosecute president

Václav Klaus Václav Klaus (; born 19 June 1941) is a Czech economist and politician who served as the second president of the Czech Republic from 2003 to 2013. From July 1992 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in January 1993, he served as the second ...

for high treason, regarding the amnesty announced by Klaus on finishing his term. The proposal was rejected by the

Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic The Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic () is the Supreme court, supreme constitutional Judiciary of the Czech Republic, court in the Czech Republic and the ''de facto'' highest and most powerful court in the land. It has its basis in ...

. Okamura also supported the constitutional amendment to abolish lifelong immunity for public officials. His Senatorial term expired on his election to the Chamber of Deputies, after he had served in the Senate for one year and six days.

2013 Presidential candidacy

Immediately following his election to the Senate, Okamura announced his intention to stand in the 2013 presidential election. Okamura's campaign submitted a list of 61,500 signatures. However, on 23 November 2012, the Ministry of Interior announced that only 35,750 signatures could be validated, and his candidacy was therefore refused. He appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court, which ruled that the Ministry of Interior had made an error while counting the signatures; however, even after correcting the error he did not obtain the required number of valid signatures. Okamura appealed to the Ministry to re-calculate the signatures individually, rather than by estimation, but the appeal was denied. In reaction to this verdict, Okamura announced that it was a "political decision", and questioned the independence of the judiciary. Rejecting the verdict of the Constitutional Court, Okamura denounced the verdict as unfair and claimed that it was not possible to obtain justice in the Czech Republic.

Dawn of Direct Democracy

In the 2013 parliamentary elections his party — Tomio Okamura's Dawn of Direct Democracy — obtained 342,339 votes (6.88%) and gained 14 seats. His previous senatorial mandate expired as a result of his election as a member of parliament.

Movement of Freedom and Direct Democracy

In May 2015, Okamura founded a new political grouping in the Czech Chamber of Deputies,

(SPD), a hard Eurosceptic,

anti-immigration Opposition to immigration, also known as anti-immigration, is a political position that seeks to restrict immigration. In the modern sense, immigration refers to the entry of people from one state or territory into another state or territory in ...

, and pro-

party. The SPD is allied to the French

National Rally The National Rally (, , RN), known as the National Front from 1972 to 2018 (, , FN), is a French far-right politics, far-right political party, described as right-wing populist and French nationalism, nationalist. It is the single largest Nat ...

via the

Movement for a Europe of Nations and Freedom Patriots.eu (), formerly known as the Identity and Democracy Party (ID or ID Party) and the Movement for a Europe of Nations and Freedom (MENF), is a nationalist, right-wing populist and Eurosceptic European political party founded in 2014. ...

European parliamentary alliance. Okamura was reelected as a deputy in the 2017 legislative elections. The party came fourth, winning 22 seats.

Personal life

Okamura has two brothers; his older brother, Hayato Okamura, is an interpreter and translator, and in 2015 joined

KDU-ČSL KDU-ČSL (In Czech language, Czech, the initials of the Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party; ), often shortened to ("the populars"), is a Christian democracy, Christian democratic list of political parties in the Czec ...

, standing for that party in Prague in the subsequent legislative elections in 2017. He has been a member of the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

since 2021. His younger brother, , is an architect and university teacher, and also entered politics in 2023. He was a candidate for the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

in the 2024 European Parliament elections. He has a son named Ruy from his three-year marriage to a Japanese woman. In January 2012, when he was 40 years old, it was reported that Okamura was dating a 20-year-old Czech student.

References

External links

Personal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Okamura, Tomio 1972 births Freedom and Direct Democracy presidential candidates Living people Members of the Senate of the Czech Republic Immigrants to Czechoslovakia Japanese emigrants Czech eurosceptics 20th-century Czech businesspeople 21st-century Czech businesspeople Czech critics of Islam Candidates in the 2013 Czech presidential election Freedom and Direct Democracy MPs Leaders of Freedom and Direct Democracy Czech people of Japanese descent Czech people of Korean descent Politicians of Japanese descent Members of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic (2013–2017) Members of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic (2017–2021) Members of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic (2021–2025) Dawn – National Coalition politicians Japanese people of Czech descent Japanese people of Korean descent