Both the Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party of Japan have been using their Web sites to campaign for the House of Representatives election, despite the fact using the Internet for such purposes during an election is, in principle, prohibited under the Public Offices Election Law.
The ongoing situation poses the question of whether use of the Internet should be allowed for election campaigns, against a backdrop in which the Net has become an indispensible tool for exchanging information.
Article 142 of the law effectively bans the use of the Internet for election purposes during official campaign periods, stipulating that displaying campaign-related information on Web sites constitutes a dissemination of documents and images. The law prohibits distributing such material during campaign periods, except for party manifestos and certain kinds of leaflets.
However, the LDP, which currently is trailing in the election polls, has used its Web site to conduct negative campaigns targeting the DPJ.
The site has repeatedly been updated since Aug. 18, when the election was officially announced.
Many parts of LDP's Web site harshly criticize the DPJ, under such headings as "Are you aware that DPJ members' opinions differ widely?" "Is the DPJ really all right?" and "The DPJ and the Japan Teachers Union are firmly united. We can't entrust Japan to them."
Printed copies of these articles are distributed at LDP candidates' election offices and during speech meetings.
The LDP also has uploaded a new promotional video to its Web site since campaigning officially began.
"The DPJ's policies are full of faults," the LDP's chief public relations official said. "We can't allow such issues to go unaddressed."
Regarding the election law, the official said: "The material [on the Web site] is usually just policy promotion and [news of] political activities, so there's no problem. We're extremely careful not to display candidates' names."
The DPJ, too, has used its Web site to trace party activities, including following its top three party executives as they pay supportive visits to candidates across the nation and featuring photos of such events.
The site's "news" section has been renewed on a daily basis and transcriptions of the executives' speeches have been published on the site.
The DPJ's public relations chief said, "[As these items are] part of the party's political activities, we don't see that we're doing anything wrong."
Both the LDP and the DPJ interpret the election law to mean that their respective Web site activities do not constitute election campaigning as long as specific candidates are not mentioned.
The two parties will thus likely continue to use the Internet for campaign-related purposes.
Prior to the official announcement of the election, New Komeito published 16 video clips comprising five series on its Web site.
However, the party has said it has refrained from updating its site since the official start of the campaign, as it did during previous polls.
When asked about the parties' Net-based promotional activities, an official of the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry said: "Under the election law, it's only problematic if the parties ask the public to vote for a specific candidate or party.
"If the sites only address issues within the range of normal political activities, we can't immediately say that this constitutes an illegal act. The police decide whether such activities are against the law," the official added.
A bill to revise the law to liberalize the use of the Internet for election campaigns had been slated for submission as lawmaker-sponsored legislation during this year's ordinary Diet session. However, the bill was dropped, because LDP members failed to agree on it.
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