Political Parties Scrambling to Use Social Media Effectively After Elections Across Japan
The Yomiuri Shimbun
A collage of images of politicians from their social media feeds, top, and political party members at a meeting about election campaigning
The Diet has been unable to implement effective measures to address confusion caused by social media during elections across the country. This is the first installment in a series that examines how political parties understand the situation, which may undermine the basis of democracy, and how they are dealing with the challenges.
On the morning of April 24, a study session was held in a room on the eighth floor of the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo. About 20 people who lost in last year's House of Representatives election gathered for the closed meeting to study ways to return to national politics.
They were stunned by what a lecturer told them, since it was largely different from traditional grassroots election campaigning that is considered the norm.
'I have never participated in Bon Festival dances or rice-cake pounding events [to collect votes]. I do not associate with industry groups either,' upper house LDP member Taro Yamada told them. 'You can get more support automatically once you are able to find supporters on social media. Then opportunities grow exponentially where your voice is heard,' Yamada said.
Yamada, who uses social media more thoroughly and effectively than anybody else in the LDP, won about 540,000 votes through social media-focused activities in the 2019 House of Councillors election.
Yamada said speech meetings and street campaigns provide good opportunities for video shooting. He said he instructs supporters on such occasions on how to record the gatherings with their smartphones in order to have the footage shared more widely on social media.
Yamada added that printed brochures are effective when promoting the big picture of the policies you advocate. 'Social media does not work effectively if you have no policies to communicate. There is no point to that,' Yamada told the meeting participants.
Ahead of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election in June and the upper house election in summer, all parties are scrambling to utilize social media. In the previous lower house election, such parties as the Democratic Party for the People, Reiwa Shinsengumi and Sanseito made extensive use of social media, which helped them increase their seats.
The LDP, which relies on individual supporters and industry groups to garner seats, is believed to feel threatened as it lags behind in social media use.
In April, the LDP had Ryosei Akazawa appear on the party's YouTube channel, instead of a television program, apparently in an aim to attract young voters. The minister in charge of economic revitalization was in the spotlight as he had just returned from tariff negotiations in the United States.
The LDP's coalition partner Komeito, which is struggling with the aging of members of its support body Soka Gakkai, is in a similar situation. Komeito has tried to attract attention by releasing videos with titles such as 'Disclosure of Diet members' paycheck stubs' and 'The relationship between Komeito and Soka Gakkai.' The party apparently counted on the spread of those videos.
While political parties are busily involved in the making of videos they hope will go viral, measures have not been taken to deal with false and misleading information on social media that was often seen during last year's lower house, Hyogo and Tokyo gubernatorial elections.
In January, two months after the Hyogo gubernatorial election, discussions began between the ruling and opposition parties to counter such false and misleading information. But after six meetings, as of May 27, the changes made were nothing more than the introduction of new regulations requiring election posters to maintain dignity, and an increase in compensation for campaign workers during the election period, among other things.
In February, the LDP proposed a set of items to be discussed regarding social media. They included the handling of commercial activities disguised as election campaigning and clarifying the responsibilities of companies that operate social media platforms. The LDP also called for discussions on the revision of the law concerning information distribution platforms. However, no concrete discussions have been held. Only limited consultations have been held with platform operators.
'Parties may invite criticism online if they take concrete steps toward regulation. They probably do not want to get the raw end of the deal by leading discussions and sparking an uproar online,' said a government official involved in the party talks.
All parties cite the necessity of taking freedom of expression into account as the reason for their cautious approach to taking measures against false and misleading information.
During a debate by party members regarding social media and elections on an NHK program aired on May 3, all participating lawmakers mentioned free expression more than 20 times in total. They argued that regulations on social media may lead to censorship.
But Meiji University Prof. Harumichi Yuasa questioned the claim, saying that the existing Public Offices Election Law already severely restricts freedom of expression.
As Yuasa said, Article 142 of the law specifies in detail the number of pages and size of election campaign leaflets that candidates distribute. Article 148 stipulates in a provision that media outlets must not 'undermine the fairness of elections by abusing freedom of expression by way of publishing distorted facts or false information, for instance.'
'It is not fair that social media operators are not subject to any regulations,' the expert on information law said.
It is certain that new measures against false and misleading information on social media will not be implemented by June 22, when the current Diet session ends. The possibility is high that upcoming Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly and upper house elections will face challenges regarding social media.
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