Twitter Japan's politics account is seen encouraging people to use the hashtags in this screenshot.

       TOKYO -- To promote interest in the upcoming House of Representatives election, Twitter Japan has begun a shared-hashtag campaign for tweets on the race made by 20 media organizations across the country.

       Campaigning officially starts on Oct. 19, with polls opening Oct. 31. Newspapers including the Mainichi Shimbun, TV stations, online media and others will use two shared hashtags in Japanese that translate to "our election" and "our vote."

       The Twitter campaign began Oct. 6 and will continue until Nov. 7. When tweeting during this period, a pencil emoji automatically appears after the hashtag. In a bid to further interest in the election, participating firms will tweet about it using the hashtags, with a particular focus on suitable occasions such as the official first day of campaigning and just before polling day.

       Twitter Japan released a statement saying, "We aim to become a platform where everyone can discuss at ease during the important time that is the election, and one where they can obtain information beneficial to voting."

       The following three Mainichi Shimbun Twitter accounts will participate in the campaigns:

       -- The main account @mainichi

       -- The "eravote" service @mainichieravote

       -- Digital News Center @mainichi_dmnd

       Details about the campaign are explained on Twitter Japan's blog post: https://blog.twitter.com/ja_jp/topics/events/2021/2021-houser-election (in Japanese).

       (Japanese original by Digital News Center)

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