Charlie Kirk was spreading his conservative message in Asia days before he was killed

Anti-feminist backlash in South Korea, which ranks 101st out of 148 countries in the World Economic Forum’s latest Global Gender Gap Report, was said to play a role in the 2022 presidential election victory of Yoon Suk Yeol. As Yoon faced impeachment over his December 2024 declaration of martial law, supporters who embraced his claims of election fraud and legal persecution adopted symbols and slogans associated with President Donald Trump.

After South Korea, Kirk left for Tokyo, where he has also steadily gained popularity. He made similar appeals in Japan, including the need to increase the birth rate, which fell to a record low last year in the nation of more than 120 million.

He was invited to speak at a lecture organized by Japan’s far-right party, Sanseito, whose “Japanese first” credo is inspired by Trump’s MAGA movement. The party made big gains in the July upper house election after warning about a “silent invasion” of immigrants.