A page showing how many times the site had been re-tweeted.
Abe Shinzo’s shock dissolution of parliament and call for a snap December election have prompted a variety of responses from voters.
But one left-wing non-profit organization, “Bokura no ippo ga nihon wo kaeru” [One Step Will Change Japan], has found itself in hot water after a member of the organization created a website questioning Abe’s decision to dissolve parliament in the tone of a 10 year old child.
The site quickly went viral, causing controversy as to whether or not a 10 year old would be able to create such a site, and links were made to the NPO in question. When the site was soon exposed as a fake, a member of the organization was forced to step forward and take individual responsibility for what many suspect was a political maneuver.
Below, you can see a translation of the site in question, as well as the article explaining how the site was exposed as fake.
But what do you think? Was Abe right to dissolve parliament?
From Why-kaisan.jp:
A Question
I really don’t understand. Prime Minister Abe said on the television that “parliament is being dissolved so that everyone can ask themselves what they want” but I don’t see the problem.
Daddy says that the problem is that there are a lot of Diet members. But it seems that all that’s been reduced is the number of school teachers. I wonder if my teacher Mr. Watanabe will be OK? Because those Diet members sure are important guys.
And the other thing is that Abe says he will increase the amount of money our country has through this thing called “Abenomics”, but my pocket money hasn’t gone up at all. Mommy and Daddy just keep worrying about their wallets, and I can’t even go and eat okonomiyaki, which is my favorite. Yet he can simply call an election that will cost 70 billion yen. Whose money is that, then?
Won’t someone tell me, please? Prime Minister Abe, politicians, or the people in newspapers or on TV. Is it OK not to keep your promises? Won’t people be angry if their money gets wasted? Why is parliament being dissolved? I guess that’s a secret too, huh?
Pon.
From Sponichi.com:
“Made By 4th Year Elementary Student” Was A Lie; NPO Representative Apologizes Over Viral Website Questioning Dissolution Of Parliament
Since November 21, a website questioning the dissolution of parliament, “Why Is Parliament Being Dissolved?”, which was made by a user calling themselves “10 year old Nakamura”, has been receiving a lot of attention online, with the Internet erupting with comments like “This site doesn’t seem like a 4th year elementary school student made it”. Aoki Hirokazu (20), a representative from the NPO “Bokura no ippo ga nihon o kaeru” (One Step Will Change Japan), whose involvement in the site had been suspected, apologised on Twitter on November 22, saying that “The recent furor was all caused by me alone”.
On the website “Why Is Parliament Being Dissolved?”, “10 year old Nakumura” presented doubts on the recent dissolution of parliament from the perspective of an elementary school student in the form of a spoof. The site became the focus of online attention after it was retweeted by the likes of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) mascot Minshukun and Ototake Hirotada (38).
However, given that the build of the site was so high-quality it didn’t seem to have been made by an elementary school student, there was an outpouring of doubt from netizens. From the fact that a similar domain name to “why-kaisan.jp” had been acquired by the NPO “Bokura no ippo ga nihon wo kaeru”, the involvement of the organization was suspected.
At first, the NPO denied any involvement on their official site, saying “As an organization we do not build websites or broadcast our opinions”, but then Aoki, a representative of the organization, confessed that he had done it alone. He apologized, saying “I’m extremely sorry to all for the fuss I have caused. The recent furor was all caused by me alone. I take all responsibility for it. I’m sorry for all the trouble I’ve made for everyone”.
On the website “Why Dissolve Parliament” Aoki explained the process by which the site had been created due to doubts over the dissolution of parliament. He also revealed the reason why he had pretended to be a fourth year elementary school student, saying “Everyone found it funny when I pretended to be a fourth year elementary school student, and I wondered if I couldn’t get more people involved to talk to each other about the significance of the upcoming election”.
On that basis, Aoki denied once more the involvement of “Bokura no ippo ga nihon wo kaeru”, saying, “My actions were carried out solely by me, and they have no relation to any organization. I swear that this is absolutely true”.
Comments from 2ch.net:
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
Was obvious anyway… w
An elementary school student would never choose words like that!w
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
I wonder why he lied and said he was an elementary school student?
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
These people always use children w
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
So now they can’t really campaign for the election can they?
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
They’ve trying to say that an individual who belongs to this organization did it alone?
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
Ah, he’d have been fine if only he’d said it was a second-year middle school student or something like that!!
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
Ummm, just seems like a retarded adult did this.
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
Hah, the main part uses kanji and everything, and yet the title is written in hiragana!
How unnatural is that? www
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
Too late, man.
This ain’t gonna end with just an apology.
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
Oh, poor baby, didn’t they teach you at school not to tell fibs?
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
Don’t do things like the Asahi Shimbun
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
The fabricated facts that the left-wing are so very good at.
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
What these propagandists do is dirty.
They immediately pretend to be people who are socially vulnerable, like elementary school students.
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
Isn’t this, like, illegal or something?
名無しさん＠０新周年＠＼(^o^)／:
That organization should be dissolved!
