Inspired by the grassroots Obama campaign, a Japanese student tried to start an online group to mobilize young Japanese voters. But he discovered that his online effort violates the country’s 50-year-old election law. Akiko Fujita reports. Listen

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

JEB SHARP: In Japan, the prime minister has called for national elections next month. That’s after his ruling party suffered a bruising defeat in local elections this weekend. It’s raised the possibility that the party that’s dominated Japan for 50 years, might actually be edged out of power, and that’s energized some young Japanese voters. One of them’s hoping to wage an Obama-style Internet campaign, but it’s run afoul of a campaign law that dates back more than a half century. Akiko Fujita has the story.

AKIKO FUITA: Kensuke Harada stands before a crowded college classroom and gives his pitch. “Sign up to vote. Mobilize other young voters. Help us make a difference.”

[SOUND CLIP]

AKIKO FUITA: Harada is a law student and the founder of I-vote. It’s an online group trying to mobilize young Japanese voters to go to the polls in the upcoming election. He started it one year ago, inspired by the grassroots campaign for Barack Obama.

[SOUND CLIP]

AKIKO FUITA: He says he was envious of young Americans who rallied successfully to make a difference. He was determined to do the same in Japan. Educate voters and change the course of politics. But when Harada began building the vote-vote website, he ran into a problem, a complex election law that bans Internet use during the political campaign season. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t running for office himself. The law says he can’t use the Internet for political purposes.

[SOUND CLIP]

AKIKO FUITA: Political Analyst, Yasunori Sone says, the election law is a complicated maze that was actually written more than 50 years ago. He says it was intended to promote fairness and curb political corruption. But it created a rigid system that controls the most minute details of a campaign, and it’s been interpreted to include the web.

[SOUND CLIP]

AKIKO FUITA: Sone says some of the rules are so ridiculous that foreigners see them and think what a weird country Japan is. For instance, candidates can pass out fliers but no more than six cars involved in the effort. Campaign posters are allowed, but they can’t be just any poster. All must be within 33 inches in length, and 23 inches wide. If you put up more than 70 thousand of them, you’ve violated another rule. It’s all about limiting the use of images and words or “bunsho-toga.” Sone says the election commission puts the Internet in that “bunsho-toga” category. Because the web gives candidates unlimited access, it’s banned during the campaign season, and that’s been extended to get out the vote groups like vote-vote. Politicians who normally maintain websites during the Legislative session must freeze content during the two-week campaign period. So most spread their message by megaphones.

[SOUND CLIP]

AKIKO FUITA: They pin up posters on election commission sponsored bulletin boards, like high school student council campaigns. One of the most digitally connected countries in the world reverts to its analog roots at a time when global leaders are using Twitter and Facebook to win votes.

[SOUND CLIP]

AKIKO FUITA: Voter Kei Takimoto says, no matter how you look at it, there is something wrong with that picture. At least one political party agrees. The opposition Democratic Party of Japan proposed changes to allow Internet campaigning two years ago, but the bill never came up for debate. Keio University Professor Hiro Kishi says, older politicians worry the Internet will be used against them.

[SOUND CLIP]

AKIKO FUITA: Kishi says, part of that fear comes from the unknown. Older politicians have never been fully exposed to the web. They’re afraid they will lose a campaign because they don’t know how to use digital tools. But I-vote founder, Kensuke Harada says, he can’t engage young voters without those tools. A large majority of young Japanese get their news and e-mail on their cell phones. Since the law effectively bans political discussion on the web, Harada has settled for emailing students a brief message just, go out and vote.

[SOUND CLIP]

AKIKO FUITA: “It has been much harder than I imagined.” he says. “I get so frustrated at the lack of progress.” Harada set out to sign up 100 thousand new voters by Election Day. At this point he’s only registered about 600, but he’s hopeful changes will come in time for the next election. For The World, I’m Akiko Fujita in Tokyo.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.