Friday, February 1, 2013

Internet election will come in Japan?

Today I was surprised at news in Japan.

“Ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) established an idea of new legislation to allow activity for advertisement of voting in internet.”

(from Yomiuri Online, in Japanese, link missing)

I guess people in foreign countries cannot understand the meaning of this news. To be surprised, in Japan voting advertisement using internet is prohibited in voting term. Candidates cannot use his or her own blog to express their political opinion. Violators may be arrested. So in Japan when voting day is approaching politicians stop blog or twitter.
Ridiculous? I think so. But it is Japanese legislation.
The reason of this legislation I do not know. It is general explanation for this that elder people who hardly use internet would be annoyed if internet was used for voting. Of course I do not think it is rational.

Recently, some politicians were trying to change the law. But their attempt did not succeed because of political situation. It is obvious that the party which had won the last election does not want to change the system of the next election.

However, this is hopeful now. LDP and Komeito, an ally of LDP, occupies two third of lower house. It means that LDP can create any laws in Diet.

Why is LDP attempting to relax the regulation now?
I examined data of supportive rate of each party.


(a questionnaire in Nov. 2012 by Yahoo!, link missing)

Actually, young people support LDP more than DPJ or Japan Restoration Party (JRP). On the other hand, elder people tend to support DPJ of JRP.
Younger people are more familiar with internet than elder people. Now LDP is the most supported party by young.

Or it is another interpretation. A lot of people have no political party they support in Japan. Especially by young people no parties are strongly supported. Putting people supporting no particular party to stand is quite important for candidates to win the election. And internet may be a powerful tool to appeal their policy to young people.

Whether or not, it is essential to use internet effectively in modern society. Election is not an exception. I hope to establish the new legislation.


*sequel

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