WOW!

I’m not sure it’s as sinister as that. I think it’s just silly old political duffers having no understanding of the internet.
In a general election, for instance, you’re limited to the number of postcards you can distribute to canvass support, and you’re not allowed to use your website to promote yourself at all under AFTER the election. Brilliant. So in a panic they probably reckon YouTube messes with that last bit of electoral law.
They also don’t seem to realise that probably the majority of people who’ll get to see the YouTube videos are people having a giggle about them, not people seriously investigating the candidates. I’m not sure how these videos could seriously affect an election result.
They should do more about increasing the voter turnout before this though. That should be a much higher priority.

[...] So began the five minute political speech of gubernatorial candidate and street musician Toyama Kouichi, aired live on Japan’s public broadcaster NHK as part of a series of election broadcasts formally allotted to each contender in the Tokyo city elections earlier this month. In the now-famous speech, the 36-year-old “extreme left-wing activist”, formerly imprisoned for two years for “political crimes”, declares that he has not “a single constructive proposal” and that “there is no choice but to abandon this country”, calling on the “people of the minority” to rise up against the majority and “overthrow the government”. Within his anti-establishment tirade, Toyama also made a somewhat endearing request to “please give me a call”, an offer that some people actually took up. [...]