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Summary

documented The LDP maintains an official online supporter organisation, J-NSC (自民党ネットサポーターズクラブ), created in June 2010 after the party's 2009 defeat, open to any Japanese national aged 18+ regardless of party membership; its founding head and lifelong secretary-general is Shindō Yoshitaka.1 documented The party's 情報通信戦略調査会 (Information and Communications Strategy Research Commission) is chaired by Noda Seiko, with a Broadcast Act Revision Subcommittee chaired by Ishida Masatoshi and a misinformation/defamation subcommittee chaired by Yamashita Takashi.23 documented The commission formally submits its proposals to whoever is communications minister at the time.3

The constitutional-revision command

documented The LDP's constitutional-revision headquarters has been led by figures who simultaneously hold senior posts in the Nippon Kaigi Diet caucus — its chair Furuya Keiji was the caucus chair, its secretary-general Shindō Yoshitaka the caucus vice-chair.4 documented Shindō also served as the party's press bureau chief (2010) and head of its net-media division (2009).1

The party's ambivalent relation to online opinion

documented Asahi's 2023 series documents the LDP simultaneously courting and being buffeted by online opinion, with disinformation spreading at speed; it quotes Takaichi saying that having been attacked by the mass media she had no way to rebut, and that Twitter and similar platforms gave her a place to do so.5 inferred The party's posture is therefore not simply "control the media" but "build parallel channels where the mass media can be bypassed" — which is consistent with both J-NSC's existence and the 2026 campaign's social-media strategy. What would test this: whether party communications spending shifted from press relations to platform operations over 2016–2026.

Links

Footnotes

  1. Shindō Yoshitaka official profile — J-NSC founded June 2010 (first head, now lifelong secretary-general); MIC minister Dec 2012; LDP press bureau chief Sept 2010; net-media division head 2009; IC Strategy Research Commission vice-chair 2019; constitutional-revision HQ deputy head 2018. ↩↩

  2. LDP Policy Research Council officer roster, 11 Sep 2026 — commission and subcommittee chairs. ↩

  3. LDP news release — the commission's Broadcast Act revision proposals and their submission to the communications minister. ↩↩

  4. Akahata (Dec 2021) — the LDP constitutional-revision HQ leadership and its overlap with Nippon Kaigi caucus officers. ↩

  5. Asahi (2023) — "The LDP buffeted by online opinion, disinformation spreading at high speed"; Takaichi on platforms as a place to rebut the mass media. ↩