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Japanese Political Candidates Go Dark Online
maximus1 writes "A 59-year-old election law prevents Japanese candidates from blogging and twittering during the campaigning window. So, on Tuesday, 1,370 Japanese will stop all online activity. Candidates get a brief slot on public television, usually in the early or late-night hours when few are watching, to make their pitch. The rest of the time is spent campaigning in neighborhoods, walking through the streets, and making speeches outside railway stations. If opinion polls are to be believed, the Aug. 30 election could be the law's last stand. Voter turnout among the young is poor, and some believe it's because the old-fashioned method of campaigning has failed to energize a population that is surrounded by digital media from the day they are born. 'The Internet must be made available for election campaigns as soon as possible,' the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's second-largest newspaper, wrote in a recent editorial."
In Japan, only old people vote.
Maybe what we need is a news blackout on anything political as soon as an election is called. Make the candidates work for their election and getting comment from real people.. They'll still lie through their teeth, but they'll have to do it up-front and personal, to the voters - which is a much less forgiving environment.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
The law was put in place primarily as an incumbent protection scheme, to prevent those pesky opposition candidates from unnecessarily agitating those pesky voters. Many forms of overt political expression are banned or curtailed. Even billboard advertising, for example, is highly restricted. The law worked: the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has ruled Japan for about 99% of the post-war period. However, on August 30th, the LDP is looking especially past its sell-by date, so it could well be a historic change election.
Japan outlawed political candidates from using Twitter 59 years ago, eh?
The Ministry of Agriculture noted that.. "The agriculture ministry is now finally in charge of Gundam."
The candidates are required to shut up in the last days before election.
Then I'd like to know how they are enforcing such a constraint in a large country.
Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
Walking around neighborhoods? More like driving around in vans with obnoxious loudspeakers. The campaign posters are funny, too. It's obvious that they're heavily regulated as to content and layout. Candidate name, picture, office desired, party name, brief generic slogan. It's like the elections are designed to be boring. I'm almost glad I can't vote...
I read "go dark" as "they confess their perverted fantasies with super loli robots and write in 4chan a lot"
That old law is just prohibiting distribution of documents and figures, and actually some candidates just put audio files on their web and did not get arrested. So, if you want to make some yen, you can launch strictly-sound-only-twitter service.
Oh, if only the young and ignorant hadn't voted in the last U.S. election...
and if only everyone voted for Ron Paul
Too damn bad that Japanese ban doesn't apply to the US, where STASI-inspired use of the internet has apparently become acceptable.
Anybody got the balls to put in a FOIA request for all the emails the White House received to that address? Care to take your chances with Chicago thug politics writ large?
That prevents twittering and blogging? I knew the Japanese were more advanced, but I had no idea they had twitter and blogs long enough ago to make a lawy about it...
Isn't that a global trend? It's not like you get anything useful out of voting, like an iPhone or something, right? Why vote?
Regarding Japan... that is actually one of the plot points of 1990's manga, Sanctuary.
Everyone should read it. It is one of the things that made Korben Dallas the man he is today.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Perhaps a similar law, probably not as restrictive, could help the US by curbing campaign commercials and excessive bumper stickers and the like.
One of the four parties you can vote for this time is the "happiness realization party"
http://www.hr-party.jp
(Actually, it's a scam party, but it will be interesting to see how many votes they get)
It should be mandatory that every major network give equal time to every candidate. Maybe a half an hour for each candidate ever few weeks leading up to the election. No stupid debates, simply spell out what they represent, what they want to do, etc. It would be nice to see biographies on each candidate; not personality pieces about how great each guy is, but actually talking about their background, education, what they've done, etc. Obviously, this stuff should all be available on the web, but I think the opinion needs to be filtered out of all of this, because what people need to see is fact.
I'd also like to see campaign contributions banned. There should be a pool of money provided by the government specifically for campaigning. That money is then equally distributed amongst all the candidates. Fundraising events can still be held but the money should go into the pot and not directly to that candidate.
Of none of this will ever happen. Politicians will never do anything to limit their power.
Each party/candidate should get an official homepage where they could go all out however they want to. They should also be required to submit a detailed description of their values, goals and how to get there (then a compendium "Election 2009" would be published containing all these plans for the public to discuss).
Other than that they should stay the hell out of the media, off the billboards, off the news, off any kind of promotion that can be bought for money.
Meh...democracies suck. Make me emperor and I'll make this world a better place.
Copyright-abolition! Linux everywhere! Flying cars! Duke Nukem Forever! Fusion-power! Abolition of organized religion! Phat tubes for everyone! Mandatory p2p! Holo-porn and omgpony-races! ZarathustraDK 2009
If you quote this signature there'll be 72 copies of Windows ME waiting for you in Heaven.
Then how do you decide who is a candidate and gets a piece of the pie? What if I decide to run for senator in every state just so that I get a few million bucks in campaign stipends. Heck, I'd even spend it all on commercials about how awesome I am, and campaign events where free food is provided to anyone who comes to support me.
The fact is that campaign fund raising is one way to separate people who are serious about running for elected office from those who really just want attention for some other reason. Think of it as a litmus test of grass roots support. I'm not saying that there are no problems with the system; there are. But I'd take it over government funded and controlled elections any day.
Gotta hand it to those Japanese outlawing campaign blogging 40 years before the invention of blogging!
Talk about nicking it in the bud!
It's informative to read the writings produced by a diseased mind. I've recently started to study psychology and I thank you for your contribution to science.
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
It's the 21st Century, where's my time machine?
In 2352, right where you parked it.
/cue pictures of AC stumbling into a spa with two girls in it and saying "...this isn't where I parked my time machine".
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
(The stuff in general, but sounds like this specific one too)
Seems like a classic case of an old law not-really-fitting new situations. Properly adjusting old law to new environment = generally a good idea.
"surrounded by digital media from the day they are born." Ain't that right, BTW...one of my cousins recently had a baby, and there was Facebookage within the hour. :P
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
The old way of campaigning in japan is also incredibly annoying. I was in Tokyo during some elections a couple years ago, and they were driving around in trucks at 8am blaring campaign slogans or something via loudspeakers.
I remember a couple of guys, seems like they were in Minnesota- they were blabbing about a candidate, and it was in the pre-vote window, and they were taken to court....I just don't remember hearing any more.
Seems like a place known as the citadel for liberty, where "Freedom of Speech" has been made so well known, that we'd never permit such a bill. Or the one coming up where the FCC can decide to re-instate the Fairness Doctrine again and render AM radio worthless. It did, before.
Without it, this disaster of a 'healthcare reform' might have made it. The disaster of the immigration bill would have, too. And it's not the Conservative's fault that the Liberals don't listen to talk radio.
So don't think this is only a Japanese thing; it's coming to a Democracy near you.
--- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
Politicians in this country are bought and sold by big money (banking and insurance companies). Max Baucus the biggest opponent of the public heath plans in congress got over 2 million $ from insurance companies. Some idiot in the Senate said it was needed because he is from such a conservative state and needs to vigorously defend his seat. Such a lie. In the last election the split was 73% - 27%. In 2002 it was 62% - 31% - 3% - 2% in a 4 way race. I guess he is doing too good a job defending against such stiff competition!
It is time to throw all the bums out and start from scratch. These people who call themselves Democrats are no more Democrats than Dick Cheney. BallsForCongress.ORG has it right, cut off their money and toss the crooks out!.
I've been in Japan at election time and the campaigning system is archaic. The local candidate drives around in a car of supporters waving enthusiastically at people in the street, with loudspeakers blaring (if the candidate was Mr. Tanaka): "I am Tanaka! I am Tanaka! Please vote for me. Thank you very much. I am Tanaka! I am Tanaka! Please vote for me. Thank you very much" ad infinitum. That's all the policy you'll ever hear. I was with a friend who waved back at one of these annoying vans. I asked "So who was that?" Their response: "I dunno."
Until recently there's only been one viable party, the LDP. They're old and boring and so archaic its ridiculous. In theory it's a democracy, but seats are usually handed from father to son. These spoiled boys are known as "Boku-chans" (ie. Brats). They still have public elections, but the LDP always wins so they're more a formality. They're generally from filthy rich families and completely out of touch with ordinary Japanese. They make stupid chauvinist comments and go "whaaaaaat?"
Anyway: looks like a minor party will finally succeed in booting the LDP out of power at the next electon. About time.
One of the big campaigning methods in Japan is to send vans around town with megaphones playing pre-recorded messages for the whole neighborhood to hear. It is beyond obnoxious.
...posting "endorsements" from a million sock puppet blogs, comments, etc.?
I mean if they are doing it over an anonymizing network, what's stopping them?
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.