Japan Passes New Laws to Combat Election Misinformation and Deepfakes

On July 13, 2026, Japan’s Diet approved legislation aimed at curbing election‑related misinformation online. The amendments to the Public Offices Election Law and the Information Distribution Platform Law require AI‑generated political content to be clearly labeled and obligate social‑media platforms to implement proactive measures against false election information, with annual disclosure of their efforts. The government plans to have the rules in force by March 1, 2027, ahead of the unified local elections scheduled for April.

The measures also task the internal affairs minister with issuing adaptable guidelines for platforms, allowing regulatory standards to evolve with advances in technology such as deep‑fake videos and synthetic audio.