Trust in the electoral system that underpins democracy could be seriously undermined if campaigns are marred by activities that deviate from the inherent purpose of the polls, or if slander, libel and dubious information influence the results.

How can fairness and impartiality be upheld while respecting political activity and freedom of expression? We hope that the ruling and opposition parties will steadily tackle electoral system reforms, starting with steps on which they can agree.

Most parties across both camps--the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner, Komeito, as well as the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) and the Democratic Party for the People--jointly submitted a bill Feb. 20 to the Lower House to amend the Public Offices Election Law. The bill introduces new provisions requiring decorum and decency in election campaign posters.

The catalyst for the proposed changes to the election law was the Tokyo gubernatorial election last July, during which a political organization opposed to Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) known as “NHK kara kokumin wo mamoru to” (party to protect the people from NHK) effectively commercialized the right to use election bulletin boards for posting. This led to the boards being used for unrelated advertisements, including animal photographs and ads for adult services, which triggered numerous public complaints.

The suggested legislative amendment stipulates that election posters must prominently feature the candidate’s name and ban any content that could defame other individuals or parties, or which is detrimental to public morals. Additionally, the amendment seeks to penalize commercial advertising on these posters with fines up to 1 million yen, targeting those who misuse election campaign spaces for product promotions.

This initiative aims to extend the standards of decorum and decency, already mandated for publicly funded political broadcasts, to election posters. While these regulations exist to elevate the tone of political discourse on television and radio, the persistence of bizarre and extreme content in political broadcasts raises concerns about the effectiveness of these measures.

The bipartisan effort is geared toward swift enactment of the bill, followed by a one-month public awareness campaign, to ensure the new regulations are in effect before the Tokyo metropolitan assembly election in June and the Upper House election later in the summer.

Regarding election campaigns, issues such as the spread of misinformation on social media and “two-horse power” elections, where candidates run with the aim of helping another candidate get elected, must be carefully considered. These issues involve the need to strike a delicate balance between regulations and freedom of expression, and the difficulty of where to draw the line to regulate specific actions.

Given these challenges, it is understandable that, this time, the parties have decided to limit responses to the problematic situation of recent elections to a supplementary provision stating that “necessary measures will be taken” to “ensure fairness among candidates for public office,” while continuing to consider how to respond to these problems.

As for “two-horse power” elections, the governors of 19 prefectures issued an emergency appeal to the government and the Diet this week, calling for countermeasures. Beyond this legal revision, the parties need to proceed with deliberations on a broader range of issues related to elections, while also addressing those concerning social media. They will need to seek expert opinion.

Since the spread of radical statements and misinformation during election campaigns is fueled by a system where the number of views directly links to revenue for content providers, one idea worth considering is regulating internet advertising during elections and blocking the path to monetization.

The Public Offices Election Law stipulates penalties for publishing false information, and the law on regulating information distribution platforms also provides for deleting inappropriate posts. It is important to first do what can be done under the current laws.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 22