15-07-2025
'Tax cut,' 'consumption tax' trending on social media before Japan's election
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- "Tax cut" and "consumption tax" were listed among the policy-related words trending on X in recent weeks, highlighting public interest in measures to combat inflation ahead of Japan's upper house election for this weekend, a Kyodo News analysis showed Tuesday.
Among the other common phrases on the social media platform were those about coexisting with foreigners in Japan. Some minor parties are pushing for tighter controls on foreign residents, while others are placing emphasis on protection of their rights.
Kyodo News reviewed about 10,000 posts a day of the around 7.47 million posts made on X about the election between June 23 to July 9 and ranked the top 100 words using NTT Data Japan Corp.'s social media analysis service.
The period covered the days immediately after the end of the ordinary Diet session and one week into the election campaign.
The findings come as political parties have pitched divergent measures to ease inflation. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has pledged to provide cash handouts, while opposition groups are calling for a reduction in the consumption tax.
Some words that went viral on a day-to-day basis included "cash handout" and "gasoline," as opposition parties pushed for the ruling coalition to abolish the provisional gasoline tax rate.
"Stockpiled rice" trended in the early part of the analysis period as the government has been releasing rice reserves to help drive down soaring prices of the crop.
"Japanese" and "foreigner" were also among the top-ranking words on X following those concerning taxes, reflecting the varying policies toted by some political parties. "Foreigner issues" and "naturalization" also trended on certain days.
