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."

Comments

Re:Real Reason for the Law

[Abcd1234]

Indeed. Specifically, laws which restrict campaign advertising and so forth put the parties on even footing, as otherwise a large incumbent party could easily out-spend and out-advertise the smaller parties.

Of course, the Internet is a whole other ballgame. Anyone can publish on the web, and so while I can understand the restrictions placed on, for example, TV advertising, they make little sense when applied to the Internet.

Re:Real Reason for the Law

[JanneM]

If that happens it would be remarkable, given that the party (MinshutÅ) expected to win is a spin-off from the LDP. Like the LDP it consists of factions, and the two that are by far the largest back members (Hatoyama and Ozawa) who started off in the LDP. Better to think of it as LDP Lite.

Actually, whatever the faults of the DPJ (and they are legion), there is a great deal of value simply in changing ruling parties at all. The nearly unbroken rule is by now bad for Japan and bad for the LDP as well. They're so enmeshed with the bureaucracy (and the bureaucracy so politicized) that they really can't change themselves or the current system any more.

I wrote up a summary of the parties and issues at play in the current election here: http://janneinosaka.blogspot.com/2009/07/all-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about.html

For real in-depth coverage (and I mean in depth) in English, check out Tobias Harris' blog here: http://www.observingjapan.com/

ps. The Happiness Realization Party is really quite insane. They want preventative nukes and predict Atlantis will reappear in 2400 once the US (but, note, not Canada or Mexico) sinks into the ocean, at which point Martin Luther, Jesus and aliens from outer space will return to earth. That kind of thinking par for the course for a religion of course, but somewhat outside the mainstream for a political party. ds.