"3,000 Critical Accounts Active Ahead of Japan's General Election...Believed to Originate from China"

Yomiuri Shimbun Reports Citing Internet Analysis Firm

In the lead-up to the House of Representatives general election held on the 8th, an analysis has suggested that around 3,000 China-based X (formerly Twitter) accounts coordinated their activities to criticize Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and government policies.

On the 23rd, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported this, citing an analysis by the internet space analysis firm Japan Nexus Intelligence.

According to the analysis, the 3,000 accounts were created simultaneously between January 19 and 24, about one week before the official announcement of the House of Representatives election. These accounts posted and amplified claims in Japanese and English such as "Prime Minister Takaichi is buying votes from the Unification Church," "She has paved the way for historical revisionism and military buildup," and "Prime Minister Takaichi's policies are increasing the social security burden on young people." The firm stated that 1,000 of the 3,000 accounts posted such content, while 2,000 accounts shared it. The Yomiuri Shimbun added that the account names followed a pattern combining katakana and Chinese characters.

The firm pointed out that the Japanese posts uploaded contained awkward, translation-like phrasing, and that simplified Chinese characters or unnatural Japanese expressions appeared in the hashtags. It was also reported that images taken from Chinese blogs or state-run media, as well as images apparently generated by generative artificial intelligence (AI), were used.

The Yomiuri Shimbun also noted that each account had only a small number of posts or replies, which stood out. A company official analyzed this by saying, "If a single account posts a large volume of similar content, the account can be locked (as spam), so it appears that multiple accounts were used."

The Yomiuri Shimbun added, "Given the characteristics of the accounts and posts, there is a strong possibility that this was an operation originating from China," and, "It appears to be intended to foment division within Japanese society and to damage Japan's reputation abroad."