On March 1, DPJ Public Relation Committee Chair and Chair of the Subcommittee on Internet Election Campaigning Kan Suzuki held a joint press conference with Your Party Public Relation Committee Chair Kota Matsuda. They announced that the DPJ and Your Party have jointly submitted a proposal to the House of Representatives to partially amend the Public Offices Election Act to lift the ban on election campaigning via the Internet.
Suzuki explained the differences between the proposal submitted by the DPJ and Your Party and the proposal submitted by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and New Komeito. While the LDP and New Komeito plan to authorize election candidates and political parties to send election-related emails, they will prohibit general voters from sending such emails.
Suzuki commented, “We want to create a new political culture in which every member of the public can have passionate discussions over the Internet. I want to realize this for the upcoming House of Councillors election. To do that, we need to discuss these issues openly in the Diet as soon as possible and seek improvements to this proposal.”
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