Upper House Election: Parties, Candidates Compete Fiercely on Social Media During Election; Baseless Information Rampant

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:03 JST, July 21, 2025

Political parties and many candidates in the House of Councillors election engaged in fierce competition on social media, by posting many videos on YouTube, for example.

The Yomiuri Shimbun has examined the view counts of each political party’s official YouTube channel during the election campaign period from July 3 to 19. The view count of Sanseito’s official YouTube channel surpassed 50 million in total, far more than the channels of other parties, including the Liberal Democratic Party, which had more than 40 million views.

Meanwhile, on X (formerly Twitter), posts on various issues and policies from the consumption tax to foreign nationals were flying around, but false and inaccurate information was also rampant.