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."

Real Reason for the Law

[BBCWatcher]

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.

Re:Real Reason for the Law

[Anonymous Coward]

This is definitely not true. The laws which regulate the election advertisements where largely introduced in the 1990s by the LDPs opposing parties. In this time the LDP was for the first time since more than three decades removed from the government by the voters, because of several bribery scandals. The coalition of several other parties then reformed the election system to reduce the power of the LDP. In this reform the laws regulating campaigning before an election where severely tightened.

Re:can we get that here, please?

[eheien]

I'm guessing you don't live in Japan, because if you did you'd probably think otherwise. Unless you like hearing endless parades of megaphone blasting vans, with high pitched voice women screaming nothing but "Please vote for Tanaka! Thank you! Please vote for Tanaka! Thank you!".

And if you want to talk about judging politicians by their hair, former Prime Minister Koizumi was known as "Lionheart" because of his hairstyle. Most Japanese I've spoken to identify him merely by his hair, and can't name a single policy he enacted. In almost all respects, I'd say the Japanese system is a good example of what to avoid rather than emulate.

Only for Documents and Figures

[s09]

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.