Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly Election: 60% of Candidates Who Used Homepage, Facebook, Twitter for Campaign Lost

An interesting tidbit from Mainichi Shinbun (6/24/2013; part):

２３日に投開票された東京都議選では、落選者の方が告示前のインターネット活用に積極的な傾向があった。毎日新聞が今月３〜１０日に実施した候補者に対するアンケートで、ネットのホームページ（ＨＰ）、ツイッター、フェイスブックを三つとも使っている８９人のうち、約６割の５５人が落選した。告示前とはいえ、ネット上のアピールが得票には直結しなかったようだ。

In the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly Election on June 23, it turned out the candidates who lost were utilizing the Internet more before the election announcement than the candidates who won. According to the poll of the candidates by Mainichi Shinbun from June 3 to June 10, there were 89 candidates who were using all three Internet platforms - homepage, Twitter and Facebook. 60 percent of them, or 55 candidates, lost in the election. The campaigning on the net didn't seem to result directly in votes.

According to the article, the above holds true for DJP. Probably the same for Boy-wonder's Japan Restoration Party whose 30-plus candidates almost all lost, and other minor parties that failed to send anyone to the Assembly.

But it was not so for Japanese Communist Party and Your Party, both of which doubled the number of successful candidates. 8 out of 17 JCP winners are heavy users of all three net platforms, so are 5 out of 7 Your Party winners.

Use of the Internet didn't matter at all in the end of LDP and Komei Party, low users of the net, as all of their candidates won.

So, Mainichi's observation that the net campaigning didn't result in actual votes may be premature. It may not be about the net but the party's appeal itself.

If you are not selling an attractive product that customers want, the amount you spend on advertisement is irrelevant.

Also, social media in particular tends to be an "echo chamber", where one follows and likes people with similar views and tastes. Maybe these net-user candidates deluded themselves as having much support in real world as in cyberspace.

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