{"id":2310,"date":"2025-09-29T20:00:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T03:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=2310"},"modified":"2025-09-29T20:00:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T03:00:05","slug":"candidate-for-prime-minister-of-japan-embroiled-in-astroturfing-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=2310","title":{"rendered":"Candidate for Prime Minister of Japan embroiled in astroturfing scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Politician caught with bogus posts of support.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

A short while ago, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced he would be stepping down<\/a> as the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and as the Prime Minister of Japan. He will leave behind a legacy of mediocracy the likes of which hasn\u2019t been seen since his predecessor, \u201cTax-Hiking Glasses-Face<\/a>,\u201d or \u201cUncle Reiwa<\/a>\u201d before him.<\/p>\n

This means that it\u2019s time for another eager politician to take the reins and probably bring about very little change to the many problems facing Japan. There are currently five people in the running, with the two front-runners being former Abe Cabinet member Sanae Takaichi and current agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u25bc Koizumi (left) and an especially sleepy-looking Ishiba (right)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

For a moment, Koizumi seemed to have the edge on Takaichi until it was learned that his campaign had instructed members to go online and post positive messages about him under the guise of being regular Internet users in an unethical marketing practice known as \u201castroturfing\u201d or more commonly in Japan as \u201cstealth marketing.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was alleged that campaign members had been requested to post messages on video hosting site Nico Nico Douga, such as \u201cHe\u2019s definitely going to become leader,\u201d \u201cHe\u2019s put in the work and has grown because of it,\u201d and \u201cDon\u2019t be fooled by fake career-chasers.\u201d<\/strong> Although no name was mentioned, that last comment appeared to be a shot at Koizumi\u2019s main rival candidate Takaichi.<\/p>\n

On 25 September, Koizumi\u2019s campaign admitted that some members had instructed others to post messages like the ones above, but Koizumi himself gave a press conference saying that he had no prior knowledge of the comments and would work hard to prevent it from happening again as he continues to run for Prime Minister.<\/p>\n

Considering the politics currently being practiced around the world, this might seem like innocuous or even expected behavior for politicians. However, in Japan, the outcry against Koizumi has been fierce. \u201cDrop out of the race\u201d (shutsuba jitai<\/em>) has been the top trending term on Twitter since Koizumi\u2019s campaign admitted to the astroturfing<\/strong>. Individual comments tend to range from condemning Koizumi to indifference about who becomes Prime Minister in any situation.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cHow can someone running for Prime Minister be unaware of something like this? Please drop out.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cYou can\u2019t commit election fraud and keep running. Just drop out!\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cThe best way to prevent this from happening again is by dropping out of the race!\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cIf they had only posted positive things about Koizumi, it probably would have just been embarrassing. But attacking Takaichi is despicable and unforgivable.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cI believe he wasn\u2019t involved in this. He\u2019s not smart enough.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cThis was an act of disrupting public discourse that shakes the very foundations of our democracy.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter who\u2019s Prime Minister anyway. Might as well have someone who looks good.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cHonestly, I think if Koizumi steps down, it would show character and improve his image. He\u2019s still young and can try again later.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cHe\u2019s definitely going to become leader. He\u2019s put in the work and has grown because of it. Don\u2019t be fooled by fake career-chasers.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I was about to say that getting involved in the unethical act of injecting false information into the public is unbecoming of a Prime Minister and that he should fully own up to the transgressions of his team and his own oversights by dropping out, but that last comment made some really good points, and I\u2019m starting to have second thoughts about Koizumi.<\/p>\n

Source: Nikkan Sports<\/a>, Hachima Kiko<\/a>, Twitter\/#\u51fa\u99ac\u8f9e\u9000<\/a>, Yahoo! Japan News<\/a><\/em>
\nFeatured image: Pakutaso<\/a><\/em>
\nInsert images: Wikipedia\/PMO<\/a><\/em>
\n\u25cf Want to hear about SoraNews24\u2019s latest articles as soon as they\u2019re published? Follow us on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Politician caught with bogus posts of support. A short while ago, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced he would be stepping down as the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2310\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}