EDITORIAL: Free up Net for elections

Imagine, if you will, that tomorrow is voting day for the Lower House election. To decide how to cast your ballot, you go to the Internet to compare each party's manifestoes.

But you can't. Something that seems so natural is out of reach. This is because the Public Offices Election Law does not allow political parties and candidates to post their manifestoes on their websites, or allow voters to download them from the Internet.

Nowadays, almost all Diet members have their own websites and use blogs and the like to share their daily activities and political views with the electorate. Sometimes, the politician will reply to a reader's comment.

But once campaigning officially starts, these daily activities must end.

In recent years, political manifestoes have become an important source of information for voters to form their opinions and decide how to vote. Yet, voters must go to a campaign office or a rally venue to obtain a copy.

Election time is when voters most need information about a party or a politician, but under the current legal framework, political parties and candidates are forbidden from sending out their political messages online during this crucial period. This is most unreasonable.

To remedy this situation, the Internet must be made available for election campaigns as soon as possible. Of course, for voters unfamiliar with the Internet, the traditional campaign tools that mainly use paper ought to be continued. However, we should also make the most of this convenient information technology that is now widespread.

The reactionary forces that hinder freeing up the Internet for elections are mainly naysayers within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Their main argument is that it costs money to create fancy websites, and that there is no way they can swallow the possibility of losing an election due to personal attacks online.

Yet, even within the LDP, more than 90 percent of legislators own some kind of website. Of course, concerns remain that libelous personal attacks and campaign obstructions can go unchecked on the Internet, but this can happen at any time, not just during the campaign season.

It seems some politicians are reluctant to change the law simply because they cannot be bothered.

The interests of the voters, not the politicians, should be the main concern here.

Even if it is impossible to allow Internet campaigning all at once, the extended Diet session should at least consider revising the law so that party or candidate manifestoes can be posted on the Net and be available for downloading.

In addition, lawmakers need to seriously consider a new system that enables the electorate to give personal donations to a politician or a party via the Internet.

The current law does not necessarily forbid online donations, but domestic credit card companies that undertake such transactions are apparently reluctant.

However, the online donation system would be highly effective in encouraging personal donations, providing more opportunities for the public to participate in politics.

Like-minded lawmakers from both the LDP and opposition Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) seem to be working together to compile a proposal for groups of credit card companies and banks.

Security measures obviously must be tightened to prevent any kind of misconduct, but we urge the credit card and banking industries to approach this issue with enthusiasm.

--The Asahi Shimbun, June 22(IHT/Asahi: June 23,2009)