A common criticism of politicians is that they, on the whole, are a group of backwards old men with little regard for present-day progress. In light of this latest development, I'd say the charges are well-aimed.

In the wake of Prime Minister Taro Aso's call for general elections by the end of August, the Cabinet has declared that the use of micro-blogging tool Twitter by candidates while campaigning would be banned. The reasoning is that its use apparently violates election laws concerning "literature and images."

I'm not sure I get this whole thing, but I'm supposing that "literature and images" would probably be referring to something more complex in Japanese. While it seems a bit behind the times for tweeting to be banned outright, I doubt it would have much negative effect. For one thing, only 2.6% of Japanese have ever even used the service.

On an unrelated note, the dissolution of parliament has finally axed the current bid for a draconian expansion of child pornography laws. Its proponents have expressed their desire to revisit it next year, but for now the porn industry will have a little room to breathe and reevaluate.