Slashdot Mirror
Japan Bans Use of Web Sites in Elections
couch_warrior writes with a BBC article about Japan's choice to restrain political speech in the 21st century. The nation of Japan bans the use of internet sites to solicit voters in its upper house elections. Based on election laws drawn up in the 50s, candidates are restricted in the ways they can reach their constituents. Candidates are even restrained from distributing leaflets that will reach more than 3% of the voters. What's more, people who are trying to change the laws are failing. Despite heavy internet usage and a strong installed base of high-speed connectivity, young people just don't feel involved in politics. "In Japan, 95% of people in their 20s surf the web, but only a third of them bother to vote. Some, though, do not seem keen on politicians using the web to try to win their support. 'I believe that internet resources are not very official,' says Kentaro Shimano, a student at Temple University in Tokyo. 'YouTube is more casual; you watch music videos or funny videos on it, but if the government or any politicians are on the web it doesn't feel right.' Haruka Konishi agrees. 'Japanese politics is something really serious,' she says. 'Young people shouldn't be involved, I guess because they're not serious enough or they don't have the education.' There cannot be many places in the world where students feel their views should not count. Perhaps it is really a reflection of the reality — that they do not."
The title makes more sense when you remember that the Japanese mix up their l's and r's.
I thought about modding your post down, thus martyring your post by censoring it. It would prove your point in a very ironic way. But then someone else would post and say that Slashdot should add an "Ironic" moderation. If that existed then your post would be modded back up as Ironic, making it no longer ironic since your post's score would be high. An astute moderator would observe your post is without irony, and would moderate it overrated. Thus would begin a vicious circle consuming Slashdot Moderation points, until none were left to moderate other posts in other stories. First Post posts, spam and trolling would go unchecked without moderator points to hide them, and Slashdot would lose readers because the signal to noise ratio would be so low.
So I thought it best to avoid the entire fiasco by making this post instead, thus removing the lingering temptation to mod the parent down.
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
Unlike in the United States.
Yup, and that's why we have democrats in office. By the time you hit 30, you realize that the sky isn't pink, that everyone isn't nice, and that bad people really do exist, and if you use logic rather than emotion, you give up the "everything is wonderful" viewpoint.
Hah, to some people, the only reason we have democrats in office is because the republicans would run wild, cutting social security, the poor excuse for medical assistance in this country, and you know, they'd piss on lawns and all sorts of shit.
I guess it's true: where you stand depends upon where you sit.
My guess is that you're sitting upon a medium sized, pineapple shaped hemorrhoid, often whilst in the seat of a late model German made sedan.
Constitutional rights may be respected, repealed, or modified; but they must never be ignored.
I'm 37 soon, and now I finally have it all figured out. When I was 27, I hadn't figured out ANYthing, and worse yet, I THOUGHT I had grown a brain in the last few years, just like others my age. I know there's probably plenty of people reading this aged 27 who'll hate this simple fact. Your [sic] too young to have learned how to spell "you're" or to have much of a world view.
I've learned that they're worthless, so I don't read AC comments anymore.