Yes to Facebook, no to email? Japan really needs to fix its ‘Internet Election’ law

This coming Sunday, Japan will hold a national election which will restock the lower house of the Japanese Diet and is widely expected to result in a comfortable victory for Prime Minister Abe’s ruling Liberal Democrat Party. The election is seen as a way for Abe to distance himself a bit from some recent scandals and poorly handled policies like the controversial sales tax increase. Looking ahead to the new parliament, one thing that should be addressed is the country’s new and nonsensical “Internet Election” law.

Enacted in April 2013, the law made it possible for current and prospective officials to freely use social network sites as well as online blogs or video posts for the duration of the campaign. Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, along with homegrown favorites like Hatena and Nico Nico Video all get the green light. Email, the most common method for communicating online, does not.

Citing concerns about mass mailings becoming a nuisance, large scale email activity, including forwarding political messages, is banned. While Japan is admittedly the land of rage-inducing spam mail, blocking the use of email circumvents the very purpose behind the Internet Election law – making it easier for grassroots candidates to build a campaign without deep pockets.

Civic involvement is further snarled because the law is understood to target candidates for office, but the letter of the law encompasses all citizens with voting rights. In the last election (June 2013 for the Diet’s upper house), that ambiguity rendered the push to increase citizen political activity and engagement toothless. According to the Wall Street Journal, 91 percent of candidates took advantage of their new liberties but 86.5 percent of voters did not use online information when making their decision.

The fact that this law did not exist until 2013 is a sharp commentary on the tech savviness of Japan’s government. But, as with most laws, it was imperfect. Those flaws were plenty clear previously, yet here we are over a year later with nothing improved.

The previous elections in Indonesia and India offer proof of the benefits provided by a clear-headed approach to technology use in elections. Why the same clarity of thought is lacking in Japan is puzzling.

Change happens slowly, sure. But while the wheels of progress creak along, a young generation of Japanese are being taught that organizing political activity via email is wrong and an annoyance. IT Media reported today that over 80 percent of voters are not going to post about the election via email or social media, in part due to concerns about the legality of such actions.

See: 5 things you need to know about Indonesia’s election tech fighters

This post Yes to Facebook, no to email? Japan really needs to fix its ‘Internet Election’ law appeared first on Tech in Asia.

Yes to Facebook, no to email? Japan really needs to fix its ‘Internet Election’ law