Aap! - Alternative Advertising Possibilities

Illegal and a first for Japanese Politics - upper house member Kan Suzuki has opened a virtual office in Second Life in hopes of winning a 2nd term. Suzuki is using Second Life to discuss policy, field questions and to propose new policies with net citizens, deliver lectures and also hold meetings.

But Mr Suzuki, who is seeking a re-election in the upper house in July, could be breaking the electoral law. Japan’s Public Office Election law, which was drawn up more than 50 years ago, limits the distribution of text and images for use in election campaigns to postcards and pamphlets. Sounds like a great idea - but Japan’s fifty year-old Public Office Election limits election campaigns to using only postcards and pamphlets.

Officials have recently ruled that web pages cannot be created or updated during the official period of campaigning for elections.

While probably a PR stunt - Suzuki’s act bring up some interesting questions and points:

- Is Suzuki breaking the law if he passes out “virtual” postcards & pamphlets while “chatting” with citizens in Second Life an act he is allowed in the “real” world?

- Is Suzuki - an active upper house member actually trying to engage younger people instead of the usual practice of targeting the old - the only who vote in large numbers in Japan?

-Isn’t it time the entire Japanese political campaign trail went viral and virtual - letting us sleep in morning without hearing the campaign blasts of their loudspeaker equipped vehicles?