Revising Election Law: Regulating Poster Boards is Only First Step

Editorial

14:59 JST, February 22, 2025

It is only natural to regulate the display of posters that have nothing to do with elections. However, this is not the only problem surrounding elections.

Unverified information spread on social media is affecting election results, and the situation cannot be left unaddressed. In addition, the fact that candidates can run for office not to win themselves, but to support other candidates, is distorting elections that should be fair and just.

The government and the ruling and opposition parties should speed up efforts to discuss further legal regulations.

Seven ruling and opposition parties have submitted a bill to the House of Representatives to revise the Public Offices Election Law. The revision would ban posters with content that undermines the dignity of elections. The bill is expected to be enacted by the end of March.

The bill states that the names of candidates are required to be shown on election posters. It also stipulates a fine of up to ¥1 million may be imposed if advertisements for companies or products are posted on election poster boards.

In last year’s Tokyo gubernatorial election, the NHK Party in effect sold its rights to display campaign posters. As a result, such posters as advertisements for adult entertainment establishments and pictures drawn by children were posted on campaign poster boards built at public expense.

This is a malicious act that makes a mockery of elections, which are the foundation of democracy.

More serious issues have also emerged regarding elections.

In the Hyogo gubernatorial election last year, social media was filled with false and unverified information. For example, posts claiming Gov. Motohiko Saito did not engage in workplace bullying were clearly incorrect, given the fact that he admitted to having scolded prefectural government officials in a strong tone.

Recently, there has been an increase in the number of cases in which people edit videos — by cutting and piecing together footage of speeches by candidates and politicians — for their own amusement while making money from it as a part-time job. As a result, there have been cases in which the edited videos gave distorted impressions of what the politicians were actually doing.

In the gubernatorial election, Takashi Tachibana, the leader of the NHK Party, became a candidate not to win, but to support Saito. Tachibana was criticized for his “two-horsepower” campaign.

In the bill to revise the election law, the ruling and opposition parties decided not to include any restrictions on the use of social media and two-horsepower campaigning, saying careful consideration is needed. The bill only states in a supplementary provision that the issues “will continue to be discussed, and necessary measures will be taken.”

It seems the parties are hoping this expression in the supplementary provision will have a restraining effect. But is this a matter that allows such a relaxed stance?

In fact, Tachibana caused an uproar, having previously announced that he would run in next month’s Chiba gubernatorial election to support the incumbent governor. However, he later withdrew his intent to support the incumbent.

Whether it is about social media use or two-horsepower campaigning, if effective regulations are not applied, similar situations could be repeated in future elections.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Feb. 22, 2025)