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Twitter in Japan is usually alive with chatter. The country has the second highest number of social media users in the world, with citizens sending almost eight million tweets per day, approximately 12 per cent of the worldwide total according to estimates by Twitter Inc. So why, in the run up to next month's national elections, have all the candidates and even the voters gone quiet?

The answer is the fear of contravening a series of strict laws regulating Internet use for election campaigns, capping the period for which posters can remain up, limiting the number of leaflets and postcards that can be distributed and restricting television air-time for candidates, designed to level the playing field for those with smaller campaign budgets. But critics of the laws argue they are depriving voters of much-needed information about their candidates and fertile forums for political debate.

Many argue these rules were conceived for a pre-digital era and have reduced election campaigning in Japan to small-scale, grass roots activities, dominated by soapboxes and loudspeakers. The Internet in contrast provides an inexpensive tool that allows all candidates to achieve a far wider audience with the potential to make campaigning more democratic.

Masahiko Shoji, assistant professor at International University of Japan, told The Associated Press: 'As long as we ban Internet campaigning, Japanese politicians won't mature, and voters also can't mature. Japanese people need more information, and they need to be able to debate the issues. People have the right to make intelligent choices - not just pick someone by a name.'

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