An Internet strategy adviser to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is keeping his eyes peeled for what he calls "mistakes" by foreign media, because he thinks nobody in the government or the ruling Liberal Democratic Party has ever paid proper attention.
Ichita Yamamoto, a 58-year-old LDP lawmaker who serves as special adviser to Abe on web strategy, has spent the last two months hunting through cyberspace for articles by leading publications that he suspects misrepresented Abe's policies.
Whenever he spots a perceived misrepresentation, Yamamoto approaches the authors on social media and, in his words, "politely challenges" their articles to launch a "healthy debate" with them.