2026 POLLS: LDP's Takaichi Overwhelming Rivals in Social Media Battle

Tokyo, Feb. 6 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who heads the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, is overwhelming her rivals in a battle to go viral on social media, according to an analysis.

Jiji Press assessed posts made by party chiefs on X, formerly Twitter, between Jan. 27, when the official campaign period for Sunday's House of Representatives election kicked off, and Thursday, and compared them with those uploaded for last July's House of Councillors election using social media analytics tool Brandwatch.

The analysis showed that Takaichi had made 65 posts during the reporting period, garnering an average of about 5,200 reposts each. The number of reposts is considered a yardstick of how viral an individual is on social media.

Her figure was significantly higher than about 200 reposts per post by then LDP President and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba for the 2025 election for the upper chamber of the Diet, the country's parliament.

In the current campaign, "my final request," an entry made by Takaichi on Thursday attracted the highest number of reposts, with over 35,000.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]