R. Nishida, 2018, Post Truth Politics and Recent Media Matters in Japan, JSPS seminar “Media, migration and nationalism: Comparing European and Asian Experiences and Perspectives” in Arts Chiyoda, 20, Sep.

1. Post Truth Politics and
Recent Media Matters in Japan
2018/9/20＠JSPS seminar in Arts Chiyoda
Dr. Ryosuke NISHIDA
Academy for Leadership,
Tokyo Instituteof Technology
ryosukenishida@gmail.com

2. Today’s 3 Topics
+ 1 work in progress of my current
research
• Self Introduction.
• Overview about “post truth” and “post truth
politics.”
• Overview current media features in Japan: “Strong
mass media vs weak internet media” to “era of
social media.”
• My recent prototype analysis of instagram.
2

3. Self Introduction
• Dr. RyosukeNishida
• Major:
– sociology and public policy about information society of Japan
• Analyzing the social media’s strategy and the campaign method by political parties in Japan
• The case of Journalism innovation in Japan
• The history of citizenship and democracy education in Japan
• He was graduated from Faculty of Policy Making and Graduate Schoolof Media and
Governance(master course and doctoral course), Keio University, Japan. He got his
doctoral degree(Ph. D (Media and Governance)) from Keio University in 2014. Hegot
some research prizes from academic societies and university.
• After had worked at some research institutes and assistant professor in Keio University
in his doctoral term, he got a job as associate professor in Ritsumeikan University,
Kyoto.
• He has arrived at his post as an associate professor of Tokyo Tech in 2015.
• He has many classes related with sociology and publicpolicy for under graduated and
graduated students. He managed his laboratory with about20 graduated students.
• He published 7 booksand works as commentator or navigator in some TV and radio
programs, news papers.
3

4. 4

5. Abstract
• There are a lot of shocking things crossing media and politics.
The situation called “post truth” or “post truth politics” after
around 2016.
• How observed “post truth” or “post truth politics” and what
are the features in Japan?
• In this presentation, to respond the questions, after the brief
overview the context of post truth, I scrutinized media matters
in recent Japan.
• Also I introduce the pre-analysis of the posts on “@kantei,”
instagam account of prime minister’s office in Japan.
• It is to understand the beginning to appear, or changing the
process of media and politics among newly information
society of Japan. 5

6. 「post-truth」①
• “Post Truth”
– “An adjectivedefined as ‘relating to or denoting
circumstances in which objectivefacts are less
influentialin shaping publicopinion than appeals to
emotion and personal belief.’”
• This word won “the Oxford Dictionaries Word of
the Year 2016.”
（https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/word-of-the-
year/word-of-the-year-2016）。
6
「Word
of
the
Year
2016
is...
-­‐ English
Oxford
Living
Dictionaries
:
@OxfordWords」
（https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/word-­‐of-­‐the-­‐year/word-­‐
of-­‐the-­‐year-­‐2016 より引用）

7. 「post-truth」②
• The Oxford Dictionaries also suggested that the word was to use
very frequently.
• In this workshop, I focused some case relating the post truth
politics in Japan with looking over the features and the structure
of current Japanese media environment and its changing.
7
「Word
of
the
Year
2016
is...
-­‐ English
Oxford
Living
Dictionaries
:
@OxfordWords」
（https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/word-­‐of-­‐
the-­‐year/word-­‐of-­‐the-­‐year-­‐2016 より引用）

8. Background and Context①: Global
• The serial defeats of “common sense” with
changing the norm of media and politics.
• Many of shocking incidents crossing media and
politics in recent years
– Brexit
– U.S. presidentialelection in 2016 / after 2016.
– President Trump and his tweets
– The case of Facebook and CambridgeAnalytica
– New interventionsby non-democraticcountries…etc
8

9. Background and Context②:
Local media situation of Japan
• In this country,there exists the conflict, “strong mass media” vs ”weak internet
media(includingsocial media.)”
– The words, “weak” and ”strong” mean the numberof audience and the audience’s image
or trust. Generally Mass media was seen that they have a strong powerthan internet
media for a long time in Japans.
– There are famous national news papers which publish over few millions, Yomiuri, Asahi,
Mainichi, Nikkei…etc.
– The influence of TV companies and TV programs are very strong. Some kind of
famous news programs are watched by over or near ten million’s audience all over this
country.
• Hodo station（報道ステーション, テレビ朝日）, NEWSZERO（ニュースゼロ, TBS）,
NEWSWATCH９（ニュースウォッチ9, NHK）
• But this few years, the situation has changed gradually.The internet media are
about to approach closer and thereat the position ofthe traditional mass media,
news paper and TV programs.
• In the local media context,the influential power hierarchy are changing.
• It affects and changes the old relation media and politics slowly even in this country.9

10. Political Parties and
Informatization: The Case of LDP
• 2000s:
– “LDP of Japan” is “Liberal Democratic Party of Japan,” which is the dominantparty has
long history Japanese political context after 1955. Withoutsomespecial term, LDPis in
ruling party.
– LDPand DP(Democratic Party) competed each other in every political aspects. The both
political parties tried to bring the modern marketing strategies and methodsetc…
– Somepoliticians insisted to start the online campaign and necessity of the deregulation.
– The PublicOfficers Election Act prohibited all the online campaign in the election in the
campaign term.
• 2005:
– Junichiro Koizumi(the former prime minister) and LDP developed the new strategies and
tools for the 44th
Houseof Representatives election, and they won.
• 2013:
– The PublicOfficers Election Act deregulated to be able to held the onlinecampaign very
widely. Political parties and politician, candidates started to learn and use social listening.
• Today
– Almost political parties apply and try to adjust the new situation(Nishida 2018). They
developed the new strategies and methodsfor the election and usual political activities.
– HoweverLDP is leading in this context, keeps on going to invest to their ability. 10

11. ①自民党のメディア露出量と政党別露出量シェア
ＴＶ番組 Webニュース 2ch Twitter ブログ 検索
ポジ：42.1％
ネガ：53.3%
7月12日の各メディア露出量
10
番組
（±0）
101
件
（+16）
6,496
件
（+100）
31,880
件
（+800)
1,510
件
(+437)
ポジ：6.3％
ネガ：9.7%
7月13日
18
件
(0)
自民党
32%
自民党
29%
民主党
16%
民主党
18%
維新の会
16%
維新の会
26%
みんなの党
19%
みんなの党
12%
共産党
16%
共産党
15%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
自民党
34%
自民党
37%
民主党
28%
民主党
30%
維新の会
14%
維新の会
17%
みんなの党
10%
みんなの党
9%
共産党
14%
共産党
7%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
総番組数：31
※重複
含む
総番組数：34
政党別の露出量シェア
ＴＶ番組 Webニュース
総番組数：253 総記事数：273
7月11日 7月12日 7月11日 7月12日
11
7月13日 今日の打ち手 部外者への閲覧禁止
原発の再稼働問題は
安全確認が第一で、
原子力規制委員会の判断を尊重
することを強調。The relationwith LDPand related
PR company, andthe social mediaanalysis by
LDP. These are originalstuffs.

12. My recent work in progress research
about instagram in political context
• Study of 「@kantei」, instagram account of
prime minister’s office.
• Method: Creating to analyze categories
– to understand the features and trends of the posts and
the account.
– 「the posts(6categories) / the contents(4categories)」
– term: 2017/12/27〜2018/7/1
– 「@kantei」’s posts = 120 posts
※ If you have a good idea for analyzing the posts of
instagram, please share me!
12

13. 13
Features of
post Features of
contents
photo Short movie subtitles
The
number
of
likes
The
number
of
comments
The number
of
hashtags
Prime
minister‘s
daily
life
PR
about
prime
minister
PR
about
policies
PR about
Japan The other
total 76 44 41 669613 3162 1164 36 46 1 11 26
average ※ ※ ※ 5580.108 26.35 9.7 ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Instagram「@kantei」 and
its features

14. Results and Understandings
• Many of posts related PR of prime minister or his recent situation. The posts from
“@kantei” doesn’tany include the posts related PR of policies or new laws and
bills although their own social media policy stated that(following Japanese
sentences).
• At least, “@kantei” seems that it does not work to improve our political recognition.
Even it may contribute to be ambiguousourpolitical understanding.
• It supposethat new social media and digital tools does notwork automatically our
society better. We need to consider how to use better in the political context or the
way to decode the political information for society.
２．基本方針
当アカウントは、首相官邸における内閣総理大臣等の日々の動きや内閣が取り組む重要政策
等を写真や動画でお届けすることにより、利用者に首相官邸の活動への理解を深めていただくと
ともに、利用者の利便性を高めることを目的とします。
また、当アカウントは、専ら情報発信を行うものとし、原則として、返信等は行わず、御意見・お
問い合わせについては、https://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/forms/cas_goiken.htmlにおいて受け付け
ます。
14
「Instagram首相官邸アカウント（@kantei）運用ポリシー」
（ https://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/pages/instagram_policy.html）より引用。強調下線は筆者による）

15. Conclusions
• In Japan, the duplication of media and political
changing caused the new situation similar as global
“post truth politics.”
• Political parties, politicians and candidates have a
strong motivation to adjust to the transition. They focus
to develop the new strategy such as the brief
introduction by this research.
• Society and people don’t change rapidly comparing the
political context, and also don’t have a strong
motivation to improve their media literacy and / or their
recognition, knowledge of politics and democracy.
15