Japan internet star takes low-tech campaign trail

TOKYO (Reuters) - Maverick entrepreneur Takafumi Horie, Japan's most famous internet celebrity, is taking a shot at politics but ironically is forbidden to use the web to campaign in the nation's 11 September general election.

Instead, the CEO of internet firm Livedoor Co, who prefers T-shirts to business suits, has to stick to traditional campaigning -- riding around in a campaign van, seeking support over loudspeakers and shaking hands with everyone in sight.

"I campaign for 16 or 18 hours a day. My brain is not functioning," said Horie, 32, running for a seat in parliament's lower house in a rural district near the western city of Hiroshima.

An election law five decades old prohibits candidates from using visual images that can reach a large, unspecified number of people, interpreted to include campaigning on the internet.

Japan, once an internet laggard, now has one of the highest rates of broadband users in the world and some of the lowest prices and political parties and lawmakers have taken advantage.

With a click of a mouse, computer users can see Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi speaking about his reform agenda or the main opposition leader Katsuya Okada stressing the need for a change in government in videos posted on the parties' Websites.

Many lawmakers have their own homepages and post daily blogs or send out weekly "mail magazines", newsletters emailed free to anyone who wants them, to explain their activities in parliament and give an inside look at politics.

But with the launch of the official campaign last week, all that has come to a halt and the Websites are no longer updated.

Koizumi called the election after rebels in his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) helped defeat legislation to privatise the postal system, the core of his reform agenda.


Signs of change

Horie, an independent handpicked by Koizumi to run against a heavyweight rebel, said the election law's ban on internet campaigning is outdated and should be revised.

"It's a ridiculous argument. The reason why it can't be revised is because we have a bunch of lawmakers who don't understand the internet," he said.

Analysts say the LDP has been reluctant to change the law as its traditional supporters are older voters in rural areas who are less inclined to use the internet.

Incumbents are also lukewarm about a revision as they prefer to limit opportunities for newcomers to become better known to the public, analysts said.

Others say the power of the internet has been exaggerated.

"Japanese people don't trust the internet. They see traditional mass media like TV as more credible," said Hiroshi Tokinoya, a professor in the Department of Media Studies at Tokai University near Tokyo.

"It won't alter voting behaviour...It's same as the pamphlets. They have no impact."

But in what may be a sign of the changing times, the LDP's senior leadership invited about 30 bloggers to party headquarters last month and exchanged views on the use of the internet.

And Horie said despite the law, the internet was already playing a role in his campaign.

"Whenever I shake someone's hand, they always take a picture of me with their mobile phones," Horie said.

"I'm sure they mail the picture to their friends, so in a way the internet is already being used, although indirectly."

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