Twitter and Local Political Candidates in Japan: An Analysis of the 2011 Osaka Prefectural Assembly Election

The Internet is an important and widely used tool for campaigning in many countries. A considerable number of studies have been conducted on the Internet’s impact on elections. While many of the studies focus on Web 1.0 technology, such as websites and e-mail, this study focuses on social media, which is currently superseding Web 1.0 technology. Despite its growing importance in politics, few studies have examined the impact of social media sides such as Twitter or Facebook on elections, campaigns, or politics at large. This paper investigates the factors affecting the use of social media, specifically Twitter, by political candidates at the local level in Japan. Most of the previous studies regarding the association of the Internet with elections in Japan have been conducted at a national level (Gibson and Ward 2003, 139). This study aims to address this deficit using the data from the 2011 Osaka Prefectural Assembly election. It has been demonstrated that some factors such as party affiliation, candidacy status, and electoral system, affect the likelihood of candidates to employ websites in their campaigns (Okamoto 2008). The key research question addressed in this study is whether these factors, cited above, also affect the usage of Twitter by candidates. The findings reveal that party affiliation is one of the determinants of Twitter usage by candidates; moreover, the electoral system has an impact on the usage although it apparently runs counter to the expectation drawn from previous studies on the effect of the electoral system on candidates’ behavior.