YouTube Clips and Broad but Shallow Attention to Candidates: Evidence from the 2024 Tokyo Gubernatorial Election
Abstract: Video-sharing platforms and social media have gained influence in election campaigns, and third-party edited videos (called kirinuki in Japanese; hereafter, "clip videos") in particular have attracted attention. In Japan, Shinji Ishimaru, previously unknown nationally, finished second in the 2024 Tokyo gubernatorial election, a result widely attributed to his popularity on YouTube. Focusing on this case, we analyzed 44,331 YouTube videos relating to the nine leading candidates, posted between July 5, 2020, and July 7, 2024. Using cumulative views and engagement data as of June 25, 2025, we examined the relationship between clip videos and the attention candidates received. Regression analyses with standard errors clustered by channel showed that Ishimaru, the most watched candidate, did not draw the most active engagement. Videos mentioning Ishimaru received about 36% fewer likes and 41% fewer comments at the same number of views, whereas some candidates with fewer views recorded higher engagement rates. Clip videos were associated with this breadth of attention. They received about 1.8 times more views but 26% fewer comments at the same number of views, and mentions of Ishimaru were associated with about 2.6 times more views among non-clip videos. The interaction between the two, however, was not significant, and understanding the prominence of Ishimaru's cumulative views requires considering both the number of clip videos about him and the views per video. These results suggest that the spread of attention through clip videos may have functioned as a broad but shallow pathway, distinct from the formation of committed support.