Internet campaigning banned in Japan?
Posted by Matt Dioguardi on July 15th, 2007
Gadzooks! This sounds awful. Campaigners can’t use the Internet to communicate with voters?
- Usually Japan allows its politicians to use the internet to communicate with voters. But as soon as an election campaign starts - the time when you might well think you would really want to communicate with them - the use of electronic media for campaigning is banned. Instead it is on the traditional media where politicians hold court - for instance, on ponderous political TV discussion shows that sometimes look like they have not changed in 20 years. Prof Yasunori Sone, a political analyst from Keio University in Tokyo, says Japanese election law is very strict.
“There are many rules and prohibitions. But many parties want a strict law to contain other parties’ political activities,” he says. “Some of us are trying to get the law changed. But the number of supporters for a change in the law is very small.”
I’ve heard of this before, but have not investigated it. Certainly the DPJ and the LDP have a homepage containing their campaign pledges and recent news. So what exactly is banned?
This is something that needs to be looked into more.
July 18th, 2007 at 7:05 pm
[…] It is tough for politicians in Japan to get the edge in elections and appeal to younger audiences. The following is from an article written by the BBC and posted at japan.shadowofiris.com “Usually Japan allows its politicians to use the internet to communicate with voters. But as soon as an election campaign starts - the time when you might well think you would really want to communicate with them - the use of electronic media for campaigning is banned. Instead it is on the traditional media where politicians hold court - for instance, on ponderous political TV discussion shows that sometimes look like they have not changed in 20 years.” [link] […]