Foreign Influence Operations: This Issue Is No Longer Someone Else’s Problem

Editorial

15:47 JST, March 9, 2026

It has become apparent that foreign forces attempted to steer Japanese public opinion in directions favorable to their own countries through activities such as spreading false information on social media.

If voters are swayed by false or misleading information when deciding whom to vote for, the foundations of democracy could be shaken. The government and social media platform operators must strengthen their monitoring of such information in cyberspace.

During the latest House of Representatives election campaign, posts against Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi proliferated on X, formerly Twitter. Specifically, these posts included statements such as, “The prime minister is buying votes from the Unification Church,” and “The prime minister has paved the way for military buildup and historical revisions.”

According to a private intelligence company, these posts were disseminated through about 3,000 social media accounts that display common patterns, such as combining katakana and kanji characters. On some of these accounts, Chinese simplified characters were used, raising suspicions of involvement by China-affiliated organizations.

In addition, OpenAI has announced that an individual sought advice from its conversational artificial intelligence tool on tactics, such as how to accuse Takaichi of being far right, around the time she became prime minister last year.

According to the U.S. company’s analysis, the user seeking such advice was associated with Chinese authorities.

Furthermore, shortly after the Noto Peninsula Earthquake in 2024, posts such as those saying Japan “should support disaster victims on Noto over Ukraine” flooded social media after the Cabinet of then Prime Minister Fumio Kishida decided to support Ukraine.

Most of these posts are believed to have originated from Russia-linked individuals, likely aiming to pressure the Japanese government to halt support for Ukraine and turn the war in Russia’s favor.

Both instances are extremely malicious. Attempts to manipulate Japanese public opinion are totally unacceptable.

Previously, foreign forces primarily targeted Western countries when trying to manipulate public opinion. In the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Russia’s interference was suspected.

Partly due to language barriers, Japan was long considered immune to such influence. However, there is a view that the advancement of AI technology has eliminated such barriers. This issue is no longer someone else’s problem.

The current law concerning information distribution platforms leaves it to the discretion of operators whether to comply with requests to remove certain posts. The government is cautious about mandating removal of posts, out of consideration for freedom of expression.

However, if no measures are taken, malicious information manipulation could become widespread as tactics grow more sophisticated. From the perspective of protecting public welfare, it is about time to consider strengthening regulations.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, March 9, 2026)