Japan's major political parties are encouraging their candidates to use social media in their campaigns for the July 10 House of Councilors election to attract 18- and 19-year-olds who for the first time will vote in a national election, a Kyodo News survey showed Saturday.
Candidates are being told to use such tools as Facebook and Twitter, according to the survey conducted earlier this month.
The upcoming election is the third national election since Japan lifted its ban on the use of the Internet as a campaign tool, and the first since a revised election law was implemented last Sunday to lower the nation's minimum voting age to 18 from 20.
The LDP, the main opposition Democratic Party and the Social Democratic Party have set up special election campaign websites. The People's Life Party said it is including messages for young voters in its online videos.
The other parties surveyed are the LDP's coalition ally Komeito, the Japanese Communist Party, Initiatives from Osaka, the Party for Japanese Kokoro and the New Renaissance Party.
The parties have been looking to young voters as the change in the voting age means approximately 2.4 million new voters have joined the electorate in a reform designed to better reflect young people's opinions in politics.
A total of 106.6 million people were registered to vote as of Tuesday, according to the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry.