Initial Disclosure Date: Jul 24, 2013
Only ten to twenty percent of voters referred to candidates’ online information for the Upper House election on July 21, even though it was the first time for Japan to allow Diet member candidates to use online campaigns. The country enacted the revised Public Office Election Law this April to enable political parties and candidates to take advantage of emails as well as social network services such as Facebook and Twitter to ask for support during their election campaigns.
The Upper House election was believed to be a test to see if the Internet can boost voter turnout, especially among young generations, and stimulate political discussions. In the two previous Lower House elections, their turnout was less than 40 percent among voters in their 20s, whereas the number was about 80 percent among ones in their 60s to 70s. (footnote:1)
The turnout actually decreased this time by 7.86 percent to 52.96 percent. This figure is the second lowest in the history of Upper House elections. (footnote:2) Furthermore, candidates used emails and SNS to announce the schedule of their gatherings and speeches and ask for support rather than explaining what kind of policy they want to focus if elected on or why the policy is important. This approach did not invigorate policy-related debates as much as expected. (footnote:3) Political parties and voters traditionally place great value on face-to-face interactions: keep blasting the name of the candidate from an election campaign car; and shake hands of voters who come to gathering or pedestrians who run into the candidate. Older generations struggled with how to incorporate online tools to their campaign tactics.
Exit polls conducted by the Yomiuri Shimbun and Nippon Television Network Corporation show that 11 percent looked up information on the Internet for voting. (footnote:4) According to Kyodo News’ exit polls, 86.1 percent did not refer to online campaign messages for voting, whereas 10.2 percent said that they used information on the Internet. Kyodo News conducted four surveys from late June to mid July. Although 39.4 percent said that they would look into information available online in the first survey, the number kept going down to 25.6 percent in the last survey. In the exit polls, while 23.9 percent of voters in their 20s said they had actually used online information for voting, the number was merely 6.1 percent among voters in their 70s or older. (footnote:5) It reflects digital divide among generations.
Before the election, some people were worried about negative influences of online campaigns including fake SNS accounts, SNS account hacking, and online defamation. In fact, there were some fake SNS accounts of famous politicians such as “Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.” Yet, the official logo on SNS helped voters identify whether the account is valid or not. So far, no major issue has been reported. (footnote:6)
Critics recognize the limited impact of online campaigns this time, but they point out that this is still an important first step to stimulate political debates in the future. (footnote:7) For instance, when a political party used LINE, a popular free communication application for smartphones, to invite the public to offer their opinions about its manifesto, more than 1,000 people responded. (footnote:8) This would be a good example for other political parties to consider their future online campaigns.
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