Imagine befriending Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Facebook. Or getting "tweets" from Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada on Twitter. It could happen if Tokyo follows Washington's lead.
This summer, Japan, like the United States last year, opted for a new government. Snubbing the Liberal Democratic Party after a more than 50-year ruling streak, voters rewarded Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan and, according to polls, are expecting change in return.
Technologically, change is needed. Public services are weighed down with paperwork, there is a lack of IT utilization and old laws still prohibit parties from using the Internet during an election period. These are things that should have been changed long before now. According to a study on e-government by the Washington-based Brookings Institution, Japan ranked 37th out of 198 countries in 2008.