Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has been unable to shake off a scandal that emerged more than a month ago in a weekly magazine. Opposition lawmakers have continued to press her this week on the allegation that one of her secretaries was connected to an online smear campaign in recent elections.
While the alleged scandal remains at the forefront of parliamentary deliberations, legislative action to regulate the use of online content for political influence is playing out in the background.
The issue emerged when the Shukan Bunshun weekly published a story claiming that one of Takaichi’s secretaries met with an individual who participated in a smear campaign against rival candidates. This activity reportedly involved the distribution of hundreds of AI-generated videos from burner accounts on social media. The claim is that the individual used this content in an effort to influence last year’s Liberal Democratic Party presidential election and this year’s Lower House election, allegedly with the secretary’s knowledge.
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