Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi [AFP Yonhap News]

The Nikkei reported on the 22nd that approximately 400 China-linked accounts spread posts criticizing Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi online ahead of the Japanese House of Representatives election held on the 8th of this month.

According to the report, after news of the early dissolution of the House of Representatives emerged in the middle of last month, hashtags such as "Traitor to the people Sanae Takaichi," "Sanae Takaichi step down," and "Sanae Takaichi must resign" began to spread on X (formerly Twitter).

The Nikkei stated that after comparing multiple accounts that posted with this series of hashtags, it was confirmed that they were China-linked accounts aimed at information manipulation.

The newspaper explained that these information manipulation accounts are characterized by their anonymity—offering little information to identify the user—and the practice of coordinating the posting of identical content across different accounts.

Among the posts made by the China-linked accounts, there was a particularly high volume of content concerning the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (formerly the Unification Church) and Prime Minister Takaichi.

In Japan, controversy over the ties between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the Family Federation has persisted since the 2022 assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, when the perpetrator cited his mother's massive donations to the group as his motive.

The Nikkei also reported that it was confirmed that these China-linked accounts posted Japanese-language content intensively around the 19th of last month, the day Prime Minister Takaichi announced her policy to dissolve the House of Representatives.

The newspaper added that "at least 76% of the approximately 400 manipulation accounts were created after December of last year, just before the election," and noted that as of the 4th of this month, more than 40% of these accounts had been subject to X's access restrictions or suspension.

The Nikkei analyzed that given the scale of the spread of posts from the China-linked manipulation accounts, their influence on this election was limited.

However, the newspaper suggested that urgent countermeasures are needed, noting that these China-linked accounts are employing sophisticated tactics, such as increasing the volume of Japanese-language messaging and utilizing artificial intelligence (AI)-generated videos.