YouTube Shorts Shook Up Japan’s Election: 2.8 Billion Views on Campaign Videos, 450 Million for Takaichi

[Financial News] During the campaign period for elections to the House of Representatives of Japan, about 90,000 election-related videos were posted on YouTube, drawing a total of roughly 2.8 billion views—ten times more than during the 2024 House of Representatives election, The Asahi Shimbun reported.
According to the report on the 23rd, videos related to the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) recorded the highest number of views at around 230 million, followed by those related to the Centrist Reform Alliance (CRA) with about 140 million views. Sanseitō, which had ranked first in views during last year’s House of Councillors election, saw weaker-than-expected growth in related videos this time. At the individual level, videos about Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi stood out with around 450 million views.
When The Asahi Shimbun analyzed the 100 most-viewed videos related to Prime Minister Takaichi, it found that about 50% portrayed her in a "positive" light. In contrast, 80% of the top videos related to the CRA were categorized as "negative."
The Asahi Shimbun stated, "When we analyzed videos about former Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba posted during the 2024 House of Representatives election in the same way, 80% of them were negative." The paper explained that the spread of videos depicting Prime Minister Takaichi positively in this election appears to have boosted her support and popularity.
Among the videos about Prime Minister Takaichi, the most viewed was a YouTube Shorts clip titled "An unbelievable thing that happened at Prime Minister Takaichi’s handshake event." In the video, Takaichi is seen shaking hands with a supporter on the campaign trail when her hand is yanked strongly; she then raises her taped hand and, smiling, says, "I’m fine, since they treated it for me." As of the time of counting, the clip had been viewed more than 5.8 million times.
The second most-viewed video was titled "A heartwarming talk between Prime Minister Takaichi and Leader Yoshimura!" It shows Prime Minister Takaichi in a TV studio telling Hirofumi Yoshimura, leader of the Japan Restoration Party, "Nice. We can share the work."
The Asahi Shimbun said that an analysis of comments on these two videos showed frequent use of words that framed her personality positively, such as "kind," "she’s fine," and "auntie."
Katsuhiro Yoneshige, head of the IT-based news venture JX News Agency, pointed to YouTube user tendencies and the platform’s diffusion structure as reasons why videos about Prime Minister Takaichi were so widely viewed. "YouTube has many viewers with conservative leanings," he noted, adding, "One person can have content power that rivals an entire political party, and when that is combined with support from conservative circles, it creates a powerful internet base." He also observed, "Many of the prime minister’s supporters are people who consider information from social media to be valuable and who are hostile toward traditional media."
whywani@fnnews.com Hong Chae-wan Reporter