Misleading AI Videos Mimic Japanese News Programs Ahead of Lower House Election

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:41 JST, January 31, 2026

Fake news coverage, fake information programs and fake interview videos about election issues and political parties’ policies are spreading on the internet. Many are created by generative artificial intelligence.

Most of the content either supports or criticizes specific political parties, a trend that has become conspicuous during the current House of Representatives election. Experts warn that the videos could lead to misunderstandings among viewers.

In one such video, set in what appears to be the studio of a TV information program, an elderly woman rants in a Kansai dialect, “It was CDPJ’s Okada who ignited the fire over Takaichi’s Taiwan remarks. Give me a break,” while one of another person responds with “I see.”

This 15-second clip has racked up over 3 million views on YouTube, despite the fact that the program depicted is entirely fictional.

In real life, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi expressed her view in a Diet reply to Katsuya Okada, a lawmaker of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, last November that a Taiwan contingency could be recognized as a survival-threatening situation requiring the use of collective self-defense. This drew a backlash from China.

The channel that posted the video has about 240 other videos in the style of news or informational programs. These videos have received nearly 90 million views in total. Many of these videos, all created by AI, criticize opposition parties, China and the media.

The uploader, a 45-year-old real estate businessman in Osaka, said in a telephone interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun on Monday that he has “no intention of deceiving or hiding anything.”

The man had previously posted investment-related videos. During the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election last autumn, he created a video using the AI video generator “Sora2” in which an AI-generated 90-year-old woman talked about politics and elections. This caused his number of viewers to skyrocket.

The man creates videos by adding his own thoughts to political news and topics and entering prompts such as “news program” into the AI.

While acknowledging that his videos are often conservative as he is a supporter of Takaichi, he said: “I have no intention of urging people to vote for any particular party. My aim is to raise political awareness.”

AI is not mentioned in the titles of the videos or the names of the channels, but clicking on the description section reveals the letters “ai.”

Quite a few comments suggest that viewers take the woman and the show to be real, with posts such as “Is she a former Diet member?” or “I hope she lives for a long time.”

The man, however, maintains that he is not telling lies. “I think it’s not a big deal,” he said.

Interview-like clips

Other videos, produced by a different individual, mimic street interviews.

A video posted on X on Jan. 18 showed a woman having a microphone held toward her on the street and criticizing the new party Centrist Reform Alliance. It was viewed 450,000 times.

Another video that went viral on Wednesday shows a person saying, “I was deeply moved by Ms. Takaichi’s street speech.” It was viewed more than 1 million times.

Although both were originally presented as AI-generated when posted on YouTube, they were reposted on X without any such indication. As a result, they spread as if they were real programs.

An image showing figures appearing to be experts or reporters providing commentary in front of a monitor in what looks like a news-style program circulated on X on Jan. 20.

On the monitor, graphs and text referring to “alleged fraudulent manipulation” were displayed alongside an unnatural spike in followers for a certain party. However, the image featured a label showing it was AI-generated.

“There is a sense that they are borrowing the authority of the mass media to pump up public opinion as if certain views were gaining support. It could mislead viewers,” said Ritsumeikan University Associate Prof. Tsukasa Tanihara, an expert in social informatics.