Japan's political parties are scrambling for ways to capitalize on social media ahead of next summer's election for the House of Councilors, the upper chamber of the country's parliament, wondering how they can help their content go viral while avoiding a lean toward populism.

In elections in 2024, social media proved to be a powerful campaign tool.

Independent rookie Shinji Ishimaru, former Akitakata mayor, garnered the second-most votes in the Tokyo gubernatorial election in July thanks to his successful online strategy. In the snap House of Representatives election in October, the small opposition Democratic Party for the People (DPP) quadrupled its seats to hold the balance of power in the all-important Lower House. Motohiko Saito, who had lost his job as Hyogo governor over power harassment allegations, was re-elected in November after social media posts calling for his comeback surged.

Those unexpected election results shocked political parties that had stuck to old-fashioned campaigns.

In December, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) asked the head of an election-related website management firm and another expert to give party lawmakers online lectures on how the internet has been used for elections recently.

Komeito, the LDP's coalition partner, has decided to expand its YouTube video-sharing operations, while Nippon Ishin no Kai and the Japanese Communist Party have set up their respective social media divisions.

What the parties are seeking are tweets and dissemination by those who have nothing to do with the parties or campaigns.

"Our analysis on the Lower House election-related page views found that a majority of posts were from third parties," an LDP source said. "We need to reach them."

A senior Komeito member expressed eagerness to "create exciting, taboo-free content," while a ranking Nippon Ishin member said the party "puts weight on sending out easy-to-understand messages."

For now, all those political parties are struggling to get reliable social media attention.

"Sometimes responses are blazing and sometimes they are icy," a DPP member said based on the party's experience. "We just have to take the trial-and-error approach."

Meanwhile, the leading opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP) warns of the risk of the reliance on social media leading to populism.

"The more striking your messages are, the more positive feedback you get. So you start doing (everything you can to increase views) even if you feel something is wrong," a CDP executive noted. "It's dangerous to escalate (the use of social media)."

Concerns over floods of election-linked misinformation are also strong among LDP members.

At a joint meeting of the party's election system research and information strategy research commissions in December, many participants called for countermeasures.

After the meeting, Ichiro Aisawa, election system research chief, told reporters that the party finds it necessary to "meet the requirements of the new era" while giving considerations to both election candidates and voters.