Yukio Hatoyama’s Blog and Twitter: Japanese Politics Gets Digital
Posted in: politics, Today's Chili, twitterJapanese politicians are not exactly characterized as, well, savvy and connected with younger people. So, it comes as a bit of surprise that Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has started blogging and tweeting. His first blog posts on the “Hato Cafe” (with a cute pigeon — “hato” — logo) included his recent trip to India and New Year’s greetings. And at writing he has over 120,000 followers on Twitter. Not bad for a newbie!
What is also surprising is that the blog is designed by Yuji Tokuda, who gave us the I LOHAS water bottle. It seems Mr Hatoyama’s office really gave some thought in to the presentation and style of the blog.
We are regular followers of Tobias Harris’s excellent English blog Observing Japan and his insight on Japanese politics. Whilst there aren’t many other comparable online media that we know of, hopefully the PM’s example will set a good example for other major politicians and political commentators to initiate “change”, digitally if not socially!
Not unsurprisingly, Japanese politicians and institutions have been hesitant and conservative about using online media to communicate with the masses. Indeed, it was only a couple of years since one law-maker got his hand slapped for starting up a cyber office in Second Life, a breach of rules that restrict the updating of web pages during election campaigns. The Prime Minister will have to be careful to play within the guidelines allowed by the Diet in this new adventure of his.
A quick search on Twitter reveals many parody “Gordon Brown”s but where is the real man’s tweets? The White House has a well-maintained, professional-looking blog but Hatoyama’s is certainly more fun-looking. Perhaps if the LDP, now finding themselves relegated to second fiddle, developed their own online sass — then Japanese politics might just get interesting!
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