Politics & Government

Japan’s Political Parties Agree to Curtail Online Political Ads Ahead of National Referendums on Constitution

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
The Diet Building in Tokyo, Japan.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

6:00 JST, April 15, 2025

The ruling and opposition parties have reached a broad agreement to impose certain restrictions on online advertising ahead of national referendums on constitutional revisions. They produced their consensus at the House of Representatives’ Commission on the Constitution earlier this month.

However, as measures could range from voluntary efforts by internet platform operators to legal requirements, the commission is set to debate the matter further.

The National Referendum Law bans the broadcast of TV and radio ads either for or against constitutional revision in the two weeks before a vote, preventing voters from being steered by bias amid a flurry of ads. However, until now talks on regulating internet ads had made no progress.

“Waves of sensational content, or content from a particular perspective, would impede calm decision-making,” Hajime Funada, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party, said at the commission, citing such problems as the attention economy, in which extreme content is used to pull in an audience and increase profits. “It is conceivable that [internet ads] could be refrained from in the two weeks before the vote, as with broadcast ads,” he said.

He also proposed asking internet platform operators to place a notice on online ads to show that they relate to the national referendum, and that they keep records of the ads so they can be checked later.

Opposition parties also spoke in favor of restricting online ads. “We need to impose some regulations,” said Takeshi Shina, a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.

“If online ads are shown without any restrictions, there is no point to banning broadcast ads,” argued Toru Fukuta, of the Democratic Party for the People.

However, Komeito’s Akira Hirabayashi said that, “Considering the complexity of internet ad posting, we should respect the voluntary efforts of industry organizations.”