Japanese Prime Minister’s Office to Use Sina Weibo to Reach Out to Chinese Audiences

Reports in Japanese and Chinese media are saying that the Japanese Prime Minister’s Office will soon be making use of the popular Sina Weibo microblog service as a means of reaching out to the public in China.

Previously, the Prime Minister’s Office has made use of Twitter and Facebook to reach out to English speaking audiences after last years earthquake. The PMO’s office also has a Youtube channel, but that’s hasn’t been getting very much attention.

This comes at a time when Sino-Japanese relations are strained, most notably with regards to the disputed Senkaku Islands [1]. So opening a channel of communication like this is welcome news, although it remains to be seen exactly how that channel will be used. We reached out to a representative at the Prime Minister’s office this morning to find out more about this plan, and we’ll let you know if we receive any reply.

Update 15:05, 07/26: We managed to speak with Noriyuki Shikata, the deputy cabinet secretary for public affairs and director of global communications at the Prime Minister’s Office. He further informs us that the PMO has been working on reaching out to Chinese audiences for some time now, as it already has a Chinese version of the PMO’s website as of this past February, and many speeches, press conferences transcripts, and blog entries are already being published in Chinese. Just as the PMO’s Facebook and Twitter accounts have been used as a dissemination tool for these messages, likewise Sina Weibo will serve the same purpose.

As for more engaging conversation, Mr. Shikata has been using Weibo himself for about half a year (see his profile here) and uses it a little more freely and informally. He was quite active conversing with English speakers after the March earthquake last year. He also noted that the Japanese Embassy in Beijing is on Weibo, as is the JNTO.

Update 15:09: I just stumbled across the URL for the Prime Minister’s Office on Weibo. While it has not officially launched yet, there is a since message posted as a greeting, which I have roughly translated:

To our Chinese friends, hello! The Japanese Prime Minister’s Office has opened a pilot Sina microblog. We will soon officially begin. We hope it can become a window through which our Chinese friends can come to understand information from the Prime Minister’s Office.

Last year Sina (NASDAQ:SINA) partnered with a Japanese company, Find Japan, which acts as a verification service provider for Japan-based companies and individuals who want to reach Chinese audiences.

This is not the first time that we have seen foreign politicians taking to China’s most famous microblogging site to reach Chinese audiences. Politicians from Victoria, Australia, Ted Baillieu and Daniel Andrews jumped on Weibo back in March to woo Chinese-speaking Victorian residents. Likewise former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who actually speaks Chinese, joined Weibo in April. In contrast to their efforts, London mayor Boris Johnson stumbled in his initial Weibo efforts, and has not been very active of late.