In Japan, political campaigns are subject to strict regulations under laws and traditions. Legally, some forms of campaigning common in other countries are prohibited. For instance, offering gifts to voters is forbidden as it may constitute bribery, and so is holding entertainment events for them for the same reason. Door-to-door campaigning for politicians and parties is also illegal. Additionally, only a limited amount of money can be spent in national elections, election posters can only be displayed in designated places and cannot exceed a certain size. As one expert noted, «the time has come to discuss the proper application of rules» regarding social media and politics. Meanwhile, a video featuring Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, posted by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on YouTube, has garnered over 100 million views as of the day before yesterday, a rarity for a political video. Some have questioned the amount spent on advertising, believing the surge in views is partly due to promoting the video on the X platform and other social media. In the video, uploaded to the party's official channel on January 26 last day, one day before the campaign period for the House of Representatives elections began, Takaichi, who is also the leader of the LDP, stated: «The future is something you have to build with your own hands,» adding: «The Liberal Democratic Party will lead the way.» The video set a record for views in 10 days, compared to 35 days for the successful «idol» song by the Japanese pop duo «Yasube,» which is the fastest music video to reach a view record on YouTube in Japan. The previous video with the most views on the LDP channel, which has about 196,000 subscribers, was a video featuring then-Prime Minister and LDP leader Shigeru Ishiba before the 2024 House of Representatives elections, which garnered about 22 million views. Among other parties, the Sanseto party, which has three times as many subscribers as the LDP, has the most-viewed video. It was uploaded in May last year and garnered about 48 million views. Sanseto party leader Soh Kamya wrote on the X platform: «We are struggling in the online battle (campaign).» The most-viewed video on YouTube for the Democratic Party of the People was uploaded in October 2024 and garnered about 14 million views, while a video from the recently formed centrist Reformist Alliance, made up of the Democratic Constitutional Party and the Komeito party, was posted in January of this year and garnered a million views. Although the Public Office Election Act bans paid online advertising by individual candidates, party advertisements that provide a link to their campaign websites are permitted. In this context, Chuo University professor Koji Nakakita said: «The distortion of politics and elections by social media is unacceptable.» He added: «We plan to run more ads».
