Political YouTubers boost presence in regional Japan with own reporting, livestreams
Repeated interviews with candidates
On the morning of July 2, a day before the start of campaigning for the upper house election, Yasuhiko Ueno, 42, livestreamed an "emergency interview" at a cafe in the southwestern Japan city of Kagoshima. The interviewee had announced four days prior that she was withdrawing as a candidate in the Kagoshima electoral district so that opposition parties could align their candidates.
"Why did you shed tears at the press conference?" Ueno asked the woman. She began a 45-minute explanation after pointing out, "It's being reported in a fragmented way."
The program was streamed via the YouTube channel Gaku Cafe. Ueno, who runs a day care center and cafe, started the channel as a side project in April 2020. He interviewed 49 candidates during the Kagoshima Prefectural Assembly election in April 2023, and his channel now has about 12,000 subscribers.
The initial motivation behind his videos was the COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020. When Ueno started interviewing figures who were active in the local area, political topics quickly captured viewers' interest. He decided to stream the interviews unedited, and has continued to interview candidates for the House of Councillors election even before the official start of campaigning.
However, Ueno has faced baseless slander over the program content from a YouTuber supporting a conservative party, calling him a "Chinese spy." He also received a threat suggesting someone would barge into his workplace and harm the children there. Such incidents led to a criminal complaint being filed with the police. "If this continues, the program can't go on. As internet discourse becomes more extreme and problem-causing individuals increase, it's challenging to know how to respond individually," he admits.
A society where anyone can try their hand at politics
Senxotimes, a YouTube channel based in the southwestern Japan city of Fukuoka, regularly picks up regional issues, discussing problems in the Chikuho area of Fukuoka Prefecture and interviewing local assembly members. For the upper house election, it has been posting predictions of the number of votes and rankings for the candidates in the Fukuoka electoral district since before the official start of campaigning, with their videos gaining over 60,000 views as of July 7.
The channel is run by entrepreneur Tadataka Oi, 43, and writer and radio personality Tetsuzo Motoki, 54. Since launching in May 2022, their straight-talking commentary and unique information have drawn attention. They previously reported on suspicions of an affair involving a sitting prefectural assembly member, ultimately leading to the member's resignation. The channel has approximately 17,700 subscribers.
"We started with election analysis, and now we fulfill roles that TV and newspapers can't," says Motoki.
Oi's grandfather was the mayor of the town of Kaneda (now part of the town of Fukuchi) in Fukuoka Prefecture and his father was a town councillor, making politics a familiar subject for him. "I want to let some fresh air into politics, which has turned into vested interests and where hereditary succession abounds, to create a society where anyone can try their hand at it," he said.
Income from the program reaches around 50,000 to 100,000 yen (about $340 to $680) a month. Since they can't make a living from that alone, they plan to launch a monthly membership system for viewers from October 2024 to stabilize revenue.
Expert: 'Decipher the intent' of streamers
A "national media values survey," released in June by SmartNews Media Research Institute found that 10.9% of respondents cited social media, including YouTube, as the medium or method they most frequently use to obtain news about elections and politics. While this is lower than TV (46.5%), online news sites or apps (17.8%), and newspapers or magazines (16.0%), it demonstrates a certain level of presence.
Kenichi Ikeda, a professor of political psychology at Doshisha University who co-chaired the survey, commented, "YouTube's transformation into a mass media outlet is advancing. In smaller localities, where existing media information is scarce, its impact on politics and elections could be relatively large."
Fellow survey co-chair Yukio Maeda, a University of Tokyo graduate school professor whose fields of specialty include political science and public opinion research, commented, "Information akin to the 'defamatory flyers' common during elections a while ago now spreads rapidly online. While voters may have developed some immunity, such as in the Hyogo gubernatorial election with the series of issues involving information of uncertain veracity, they still need to decipher the intent of those sending out the information and check the sources."
(Japanese original by Masanori Hirakawa, Kyushu News Department)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Mainichi
an hour ago
- The Mainichi
Kitakyushu group rallies against anti-foreigner sentiment in Japan upper house race
KITAKYUSHU -- About 70 members of a citizens' group here called for an inclusive society at a recent demonstration ahead of the July 20 House of Councillors election "Heiwa o Akiramenai Kitakyushu Net" (Kitakyushu network for not giving up peace) members took to the streets in Kitakyushu's Kokurakita Ward on July 13, holding up signs with messages including, "Toward a society that excludes no one." In campaigning for the upper house election, the right-wing populist party Sanseito, which promotes a "Japanese First" agenda, is arguing that the increase in foreign workers is hindering wage growth for Japanese citizens and calling for restrictions on accepting foreign labor. The Liberal Democratic Party, the Democratic Party for the People, Nippon Ishin (the Japan Innovation Party) and the Conservative Party of Japan have also pledged to tighten immigration policies. Regarding the exclusionary agendas seen in the upper house race campaign, Kentoku Maeda, a lawyer and the head of the network, told the Mainichi Shimbun, "They're caused by the spread of false information and rumors, such as the idea of 'special privileges for foreigners.' It's shallow and unacceptable that parties are competing over exclusionary policies as if being triggered by this." Hiromi Suenaga, chairperson of Union Kitakyushu, which supports foreign technical interns, said, "I want people to understand the reality that many low-wage foreign workers are supporting the daily lives of Japanese citizens in sectors like nursing care and construction."
The Mainichi
2 hours ago
- The Mainichi
Government opens office to address Japan's foreign resident issues
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The government on Tuesday launched a new office within the Cabinet Secretariat tasked with addressing concerns about the impact of foreigners on Japan, with the topic becoming a hot-button issue for fringe parties during campaigning for this weekend's upper house election. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba says the office will ensure that people's concerns about foreign residents are heard, including claims of disproportionately high crime rates and alleged abuse of the social security system. It comes in the middle of campaigning for Sunday's House of Councillors election, in which some minor conservative parties are calling for tighter controls, particularly on foreign residents of Japan. The government faces a delicate balancing act in pushing for stricter rules and regulations while ensuring it does not open itself up to allegations of discrimination. The new office will share information on issues related to foreign residents in Japan and coordinate responses among relevant offices such as the Immigration Services Agency, the Finance Ministry and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. Having long had a strict immigration policy, Japan has been gradually opening its doors to foreign workers to address labor shortages, which are expected to worsen in the coming years due to the rapid aging of the population. In recent weeks, Ishiba's Liberal Democratic Party has said Japan needs to tighten rules on foreign driver's license conversions after recent accidents involving foreign nationals, and on the negative impacts on the property market caused by foreign buying. The major opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan has said a new law is needed to ensure Japanese and their foreign neighbors can live in harmony while having their rights respected. Sanseito, an emerging ultraconservative party that media polls have shown is gaining popularity, has campaigned on a "Japanese First" platform that calls for limiting the intake of foreign workers to Japan.
Japan Today
2 hours ago
- Japan Today
Australia and China call for more dialogue, cooperation at leaders' meeting
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, right, talks to China's President Xi Jinping, second left, in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on Tuesday. By Lewis Jackson By Lewis Jackson BEIJING (Reuters) -China is ready to work with Australia to deepen bilateral ties, President Xi Jinping said during a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday in Beijing. The meeting between the two leaders comes as China tries to capitalise on U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping trade tariffs by presenting itself as a stable and reliable partner. Chinese officials have expressed interest in expanding a decade-old free trade deal and cooperating in artificial intelligence. China was willing to "promote further development in the China-Australia relationship," Xi said in remarks at the start of the meeting. Australia valued its ties to China, its largest trading partner, and welcomed "progress on cooperation" under the free trade deal, Albanese said in response, adding that Australia's national interest would guide Canberra's approach to the relationship. "Dialogue needs to be at the centre of our relationship," the prime minister said. "I welcome the opportunity to set out Australia's views and interests and our thinking on how we can maintain peace, security, stability and prosperity in our region." Albanese is expected to meet Chinese Premier Li Qiang later on Tuesday. He has previously said resources trade, energy transition and security tensions would be key topics for discussions in Beijing. Australia, which regards the United States its major security ally, has pursued a China policy of "cooperate where we can, disagree where we must" under Albanese. In the run-up to the visit, China signalled repeatedly it was open to deeper cooperation. On Tuesday, the state-owned China Daily newspaper published a glowing opinion piece about the visit and said it showed countries with different political systems could still cooperate. However, any cooperation is likely to be constrained by long-standing Australian concerns around China's military build-up and the jailing of Australian writer Yang Hengjun. Beijing has also separately criticised Canberra's increased screening of foreign investment in critical minerals and Albanese's pledge to return a Chinese-leased port to Australian ownership. Australia's exports to China, its largest trading partner, span agriculture and energy but are dominated by iron ore, and Albanese has travelled with executives from mining giants Rio Tinto, BHP, and Fortescue, who met Chinese steel industry officials on Monday, at the start of the six-day visit. Bran Black, CEO of the Business Council of Australia, said Australia's Bluescope Steel would also be at Tuesday's business roundtable, along with China's electric vehicle giant BYD, Chinese banking executives, Baosteel and state-run food group COFCO. "First and foremost we use fixtures such as this to send a signal that business-to-business engagement should be welcomed and encouraged," Black told Reuters on Tuesday. © (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2025.
