Japanese Politicians Actively Use Social Media: Funds Reports
Tokyo, Dec. 1 (Jiji Press)--Japanese political parties and lawmakers actively used social media and the internet for their political activities in 2023, 10 years after internet election campaigns became legal, political funds reports have shown.
Political parties' use of online messaging is seen accelerating further as smartphones are becoming important tools to reach voters and affect their voting behavior.
According to the reports for 2023, disclosed by the internal affairs ministry Friday, the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan spent about 129 million yen for online dissemination last year.
Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party) used over 86 million yen on social media and other online advertising.
Komeito, the coalition partner of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, logged some 29 million yen for spending linked to ads on YouTube, and the Democratic Party for the People around 7 million yen for livestreaming expenses.
There is no standard for recording internet-related expenditures in statutory political funds reports. The LDP's online spending is believed to have been included in the category of advertising and promotion costs, although this was not explicitly stated.
Among political organizations other than parties, a group linked to former House of Representatives member Nobuteru Ishihara of the LDP reported 5.5 million yen in social media-related spending.
Other groups made expenditures on social media platforms such as X, formerly Twitter, Line and Instagram and spent money to buy equipment for taking videos, according to their reports.
Some political parties have gained revenue from online activities.
Reiwa Shinsengumi logged roughly 11 million yen in revenue from what it marked as Google Ads.
The party said that the revenue was generated from the viewership of its YouTube videos. The party's official channel has posted over 1,900 videos, attracting more than 330,000 subscribers.
Japan revised the public offices election law in 2013 to enable politicians to use various websites and social media, such as candidates' webpages and YouTube accounts, in election campaigns.
Shinji Ishimaru, the runner-up in this year's Tokyo gubernatorial election, and Motohiko Saito, who recently won re-election as governor of the western prefecture of Hyogo, are said to have successfully boosted their votes by using social media.
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