Yesterday, a council made of up policy affairs chiefs from ten parties met in order to discuss “the pros and cons of using Web sites, blogs, e-mail and the microblogging service Twitter” during election campaigns. The council is called the 「インターネットを使った選挙運動の解禁についての各党協議会」 in Japanese, so let’s call it “The Multiparty Council Concerning Lifting the Ban on the Use of the Internet in Election Campaigns.”

According to the Yomiuri, the council decided that web sites and blogs could be updated during campaigns, but stopped short of lifting the ban on email and Twitter, as it was feared that the latter two could be used to slander people. However, it is expected that the ban on email and Twitter will also be lifted in the near future.

Obviously it makes little sense to allow blogs and then disallow Twitter on the grounds that it might lead to slander. That said, I don’t think anyone expects the group of ten policy chiefs to have a full understanding of the services they’re discussing.

The ban is expected to be lifted in time for this summer’s Upper House election. When the LDP was still the ruling party, the DPJ unsuccessfully submitted legislation to have the ban lifted four times.