WIT Life #243: Effect of Internet on Japanese elections
Translating/Interpreting, WIT Life, Writers 
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WIT Life is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends along with her own observations.
This past Sunday’s election for the Upper House of Japan’s Parliament provided an overwhelming victory to PM Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party. As the New York Times noted, “His conservative coalition now seems assured a working parliamentary majority through 2016, which would end the trend of weak revolving-door governments, which saw six successive prime ministers over the past six years.”
The results also seem to be a vote of confidence for Abenomics, the Prime Minister’s economic plan comprised of the three arrows of monetary easing, fiscal stimulus and pro-growth strategy. While these reforms seem to have been beneficial so far, there are voices of concern regarding Abe’s nationalistic views and their impact on Asian neighbors.
Another interesting aspect of the election was how it was affected by the introduction of Internet use (i.e. Twitter, Facebook) during the campaign period, which I discussed in a recent post. There were hopes that allowing online activity would increase the civic participation of younger voters, but the voting rate was 52.6%, 5.31 points lower than during the previous election in 2010 and the third-lowest showing in postwar history. Clearly, this technological addition did not have the positive impact that was hoped for.
A survey was carried out on 50 men and women in their 20s, asking if they used the Internet as a resource for the election. Only 40% of this sample took advantage of the changes, with 20 responding yes and 30 saying no. Those who answered affirmatively said that they appreciated having a variety of sources to consider. Those who answered negatively expressed that there was too much information and it overwhelmed them, and in addition they had a hard time confirming its veracity.
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