スクリプトは事前提出されたものですので、ビデオの音声とは異なる場合があります。 ビデオの読み込みに時間がかかる場合は、下段の Small 版をお試しください。

The First Step toward the Election

Ishikawa National College of Technology

I Introduction
O: Hello! Today we are going to talk about involving young people in the election process.

K: The members of this team are 19 and 20 years old. We'll be voting soon. That's why we would like to discuss the election today.

O: A National Election was held in July, 2013. The new Online Election Campaign was carried out to encourage young people to participate in politics. Because of the new online election campaign, even during the election period, candidates were able to give us information about their policies using their own websites or social media.

N: However, the voting rate declined by 5%. It cannot be said that political participation of new voters improved because the voting rate of young people was still 35.8%. Although everyone could get information easily, why didn't the Online Election Campaign succeed?

II The 2013 Online Election Campaign
K: We conducted a questionnaire survey with 235 students at Ishikawa Kosen. We gave them eleven questions. One of them was “Did you know about the 2013 Online Election Campaign?” Please look at this chart. It shows that 56% of the students didn't know about the campaign. We think the Online Election Campaign failed because not many young people knew about it. How about the other 44%? Did you know the Campaign when you voted last year?

N: Yes, I did.

K: Please tell me about your experience.

N: I voted in the last national election. At first I thought that I would be able to obtain information from the Internet since I didn't have much information about political parties, candidates or their policies. When I actually used the Internet, I could only get information about the candidates' names and personal histories and see their pictures.

O: Did you get enough information?

N: No. I could obtain the candidate's information from the campaign. However, because of my lack of knowledge about politics or elections, it was really hard to decide who I should vote for from the information. That is why I felt it's really difficult to make good use of the Online Election Campaign.

K: She thought the Online Election Campaign would be helpful for people who don't have enough time to do much research. We wondered what the candidates thought of the online election campaign. We interviewed a current member of the National Diet, Mr. Hiroshi Hase, who is from our hometown Kanazawa.

N: At the interview, Mr. Hase said “We want voters to understand our careers from the Internet but our personalities through our speeches.” We realized that having an online election campaign is one of many tools for delivering information to voters. Thus, what voters and candidates expect from the online election campaign is different.

K: Now, why is the participation of young people important in politics? Please take a look at this chart. The current number of young voters is smaller than that of other ages.

O: What is worse, the number of young voters who actually voted in the last election is smaller than any other age group. Therefore we can see the opinions of young voters are hardly reflected. For example, a small number of young people support a large number of old people who are receiving pension. Many young people feel the current situation is not fair. We need the opinions of young people to improve the political process.

III Possibilities and Significance of the Online Election Campaign
O: We think the Online Campaign failed because most young people were not interested in elections or politics. Now let me show you one solution based on my experience.

N: We have a school festival called Kiyu-sai every October. On that occasion, each class has a lot of fun performing play, dancing, and running food booths. They advertise their performances and booths using notices, decorations and so on.

O: This year, I was asked by my classmates to make a website for advertising our food booth. After I put it on a web, they began to “tweet” and shared the link. In three days they shared almost 100 tweets. Moreover, the website introducing our products was viewed over 200 times . As it was spread by my classmates, I could attract even more students and guests. Through this experience, I thought political discussion among young people would be more lively through the Internet if they become more interested in politics and elections.

K: I originally viewed politics and election with indifference, so I didn't have much knowledge about politics. However, I could get a lot of information about the election through the Internet. I also became interested in politics from doing research for this presentation.

O: Mr. Hase mentioned “The prerequisite of interest is knowledge.”

K: That's right. From his words, I realized young people need more knowledge about politics.

IV The First Step toward the Election
N: As we just mentioned, the Online Election Campaign is just one tool to obtain information. However, it's a very suitable way to share knowledge about politics. In recent years, the number of people using smartphones has been increasing. People can get information, no matter when or where they are.

O: That's why we think the situation is going to become better for young people who usually get information from the Internet. Since they use the Internet every day, the significance of the Online Election Campaign is closely related with young people.

K: Because the percentage of students at Kosen who use the Internet is high, students have a lot of chances to get information about politics. We think students at Kosen can take the lead in involving young people in the political process when they find possibilities of the Online Election Campaign.

O: According to the results of a questionnaire, about half of the students think their votes have no influence on politics. Young people who think like this will probably not vote in the future.
K The students at Kosen will be voting soon.

N: Do we have enough information about politics to become a good voter?

O: Do we have enough knowledge to identify who we should vote for?

K: What we have to do is to get enough information. Getting information can be the first step toward having an interest in politics and political involvement.

N: Thank you!