Research Note: Statistical Analysis on E-mail Magazines used by Japanese Prime Ministers

摘要

This paper presents a multiple regression analysis of the relationship between the frequencies of political keywords on cabinet e-mail magazines and cabinet approval ratings from the period of April 2001 to September 2009 in Japan. The authors found that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was the only Prime Minister who utilized a cabinet e-mail magazine as a strong political tool. Other prime ministers from the Liberal Democratic Party failed to utilize this type of magazine as a tool. In addition, we concluded that Japanese voters did not highly value the Koizumi Cabinet’s economic performance, but highly evaluated its message in the electronic information space of political economy.