Online Election Campaigns and Digital Democracy in Japan

10, Nov. 2014＠The Japan Foundation, London Ryosuke Nishida

Graduate School of Core Ethics and Frontier Sciences, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto

ryosukenishida@gmail.com

2  

Ryosuke Nishida •  Associate Professor, Graduate School of Core Ethics

and Frontier Sciences, Ritsumeikan University.

•  Ph. D（Media and Governance）, Keio University

•  Major in Public Policy and Sociology.

•  Author of Net Senkyo(Online Election Campaign in Japan)

•  Co-Author of Mugyo-Shakai(Workless Society).

3

4  

a Main Actor of Online Election Campaigns in Japan

•  1996: New Party Sakigake •  2000-2010: The Democratic Party of Japan

•  2012―: The Liberal Democratic Party

•  2013: Lifting of the Ban on Online Election Campaign

5  

The Myth of Online Election Campaigning

•  Efficiency

•  Improving Voting Rate – House of Councellors Election, 2013: 52.61% – Tokyo Gubernatorial Election, 2014: 46.14%

•  Increase of Slander

Fig.2  Transi.on  of  the  House  of  Representa.ves  general  elec.on  h;p://www.akaruisenkyo.or.jp/070various/071syugi/693/ 6

7  

Fig.1:    Numbers  of  SNS  fans    h;p://www.userlocal.jp/news/201307181/

8  

June July

Transi,on  of  Topics  on  Twi3er  

Nuclear Earthquake

Cons,tu,on Na,onal  Security Social  security “Abenomics”

Consump,on  tax

9  

Nuclear

Nuclear

Opinion  Poll  by  Mainichi  Shinbun on  Twi3er

Consump,on  tax

Social  Security

Social  Security the  Others

“Abenomics”

All  Tweets  about  Social  Security

RT  Numbers

Original  Tweets

Unique  Users

Unique  Users

Number  of  Retweeters

Number  of  Retweeters

Original  Tweets

RT  Numbers

All  Tweets  about  Nuclear

10  

Achievements and Challenges of the Online Election Campaign

•  Improvement of Transparency

•  Lack of Interactivity

•  Conflicts of “New” and “Old” （ICT vs. Party System, Old Election Campaign and Laws etc…） –  New Movement Rising from Young Generation –  Senkyo-Fes: Election Festival by Yohei Miyake 11 July @ Hachi-Ko-Mae, Shibuya https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTlwP8Ug2UM 20 July @ Hachi-Ko-Mae, Shibuya https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFNRDzgTw94

11  

The Possibilities of Online Election Campaigns and Digital Democracy

•  New ICT Tools, New Strategies of Governance, New or Improving Law

•  Change from Local Election?

•  2015 and 2016 are the year of the election, in Japan.