The battle for the leadership of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is intensifying, with front-runner candidate and Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Koichi Yamamoto, being embroiled in a "online army scandal."

On September 26 local time, Yamamoto admitted at a press conference that his campaign team had asked supporters to "boost sponsorship momentum" and publicly apologized, but emphasized that he was unaware of the situation. Subsequently, former Minister of Digital Affairs Makiko Onoda announced her resignation from Yamamoto's campaign team. That night, the topic "withdraw from the presidential election" quickly became a hot search on Japan's X platform.

According to a report by "Shukan Bunshun" on September 25 local time, an email circulated within Yamamoto's camp instructed supporters to post a large number of positive comments about Yamamoto in online comment sections, attempting to create an illusion of widespread public support.

Shukan Bunshun website

This email was sent by the office of former Minister of Digital Affairs Makiko Onoda. Her father, Makio Onoda, had long followed former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and served as Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary during Koizumi's government. The two families have a deep relationship.

Now, Onoda is serving as the "General Manager for Publicity" in Yamamoto's campaign team. Because of this, once the email was exposed, it caused a huge uproar on the Japanese internet.

On the night of the 26th, she announced her resignation from this position. According to a report by "Mainichi Shimbun," Onoda told people around her that her decision to resign was due to concerns that if the issue continued to escalate, it would hinder the reconstruction of the LDP's image.

Makiko Onoda FNN

In the exposed email, Onoda's office not only asked supporters to control comments, but also provided 24 comment templates.

These templates are roughly divided into two categories. One category directly praises Yamamoto, such as complimenting him as "more mature than before" and "the position of president is yours." The other category involves others, indirectly promoting Yamamoto through statements like "it's amazing that you could convince Ishikawa to resign" and "don't lose to that conservative." Many Japanese netizens believe that "conservative" refers to his rival, Takayuki Sato.

After the exposure of this incident, some Japanese netizens couldn't help but go to video websites to check comments, and found out that many comments were from the same person.

Screenshot of fake comments taken by Japanese netizens on video websites on X platform

According to Japan's NHK, on the evening of the 26th, Yamamoto personally appeared at a press conference to admit the incident was true, but emphasized that he was unaware beforehand, stating, "This was a set of examples provided by Onoda's office based on their own judgment." He also said, "I have no intention of criticizing other candidates, but such behavior is clearly inappropriate, and I have explicitly requested that similar situations do not happen again." Finally, Yamamoto reiterated that he would continue to run for the position.

Koichi Yamamoto admits to the "fake review" incident on NHK

Hiring online armies to boost reviews is not a secret in Japan's online culture, but the problem with this incident is that some of the content involved attacking another candidate, Takayuki Sato. Since Yamamoto only officially became a member of the House of Councillors in 2019, his political career is much shorter compared to Sato. Therefore, this is almost seen as "underdog defeating the superior" within the LDP. Moreover, Sato has always been promoted as a potential first female prime minister of Japan, and related comments have been questioned by Japanese netizens for possibly having a "gender discrimination" tone.

This has made many Japanese netizens very angry, with a large number of netizens flooding Onoda's X account comment section to angrily criticize Yamamoto as "a despicable person without precedent."

A netizen shouted, "Why are you controlling the comment section, aren't you supposed to listen to the voices of the people?"

Another netizen joked, "You can even persuade Ishikawa, how impressive!"

According to previous polls published by several Japanese media outlets, Yamamoto and Sato have relatively high support rates, and it is still difficult to determine whether this "online army scandal" will have a substantial impact on Yamamoto's campaign.

Recently, Yamamoto's campaign has been full of controversies. On the 26th, Yamamoto was caught eating bento in a business car by Japanese media, which many netizens couldn't help but mock as showing off; previously, "Shukan Bunshun" revealed that his father-in-law had boasted that if his son-in-law became the prime minister, he would build a mansion worth 550 million yen.

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Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7554676944526066210/

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