11. Social Media in the 2024 General Election

The 2024 general election is widely seen as the first national election in Japan in which social media played a truly significant and impactful role. Although many of the country’s most-followed politicians on platforms such as X/Twitter are senior Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) figures, most candidates from mainstream parties employed an anodyne and non-interactive approach to social media campaigning, creating a messaging opportunity that was exploited particularly effectively by the Democratic Party for the People (DPP), as well as by fringe parties such as Sanseitō and the Conservative Party of Japan (CPJ). On X and YouTube in particular, the comparatively weak social media campaigns of mainstream candidates meant that messaging from the DPP and fringe groups could spread across the platforms largely unchallenged, despite concerns that some of it constituted misinformation or even conspiracy theories. Survey data from the election confirms that a significant divide has emerged in terms of the information sources used by supporters of different types of parties, with supporters of the DPP, CPJ, Sanseitō, and Reiwa Shinsengumi tending to forego traditional media such as TV and newspapers in favor of social media platforms. Concerns about the role of social media in this election, along with the controversial role of social media and online misinformation during other electoral contests in 2024 such as the Tokyo and Hyogo gubernatorial elections, has led to suggestions by some politicians that the rules and regulations governing the use of these platforms in political campaigning should be reconsidered.