According to data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Japan's parliament is largely made up of members between the ages of 50 and 70, 75 percent of whom are men.
According to NHK news agency, Ryosuke Takashima, 26, became Japan's youngest mayor. He graduated from Harvard University with a degree in environmental engineering last year.
“As a young person, I think it will be easier for citizens to sympathize with me,” he told reporters, according to NHK. “Without political experience, I can ask about things I don’t understand, learn more, and I want to express these things in my vision.”
According to NHK, Japan's youngest mayor before Ryosuke Takashima was Kotaro Shishida, elected in 1994 at the age of 27.
Takashima campaigned on eco-friendly infrastructure plans, promising to build more public spaces and parks, as well as reforms ineducation and training, child care and health, and adolescent health. He will take office as mayor of Ashiya City in Hyogo Prefecture on May 1.
In addition, a 26-year-old YouTuber also entered the race for the Hiratsuka City Council and won, with the official name “Shin, YouTuber of Hiratsuka”.
Shin owns a shop selling Pokemon cards but is better known for his YouTube channel, which features videos of local stalls and city events. His most popular video is a review of 10 ramen shops in Hiratsuka.
Shin, a YouTuber from Hiratsuka, wins election to the Hiratsuka City Council. Photo: Shin/YouTube.
According to Shin’s website, while making his videos and talking to local business owners, he heard a lot about their complaints and hardships. That motivated him to run for city council and bring a breath of fresh air to the city’s rigid political landscape.
His website states: “Japan’s politicians are getting older. Hiratsuka has many high schools and universities, so there are definitely many young people living here.”
A father of a three-year-old, he focused on childcare issues in his campaign, stressing the need for better support for parents and work-life balance, as well as support for the elderly amid Japan's aging population and shrinking workforce.
Ayaka Nasuno, 25, is another Gen Z politician who emerged after winning a landslide victory in the Kawasaki City Council election earlier this April.
According to her website and social media accounts, after growing up in a bullying environment, Nasuno decided to “build her own community” by organizing community trash pickups. That was the beginning of her work with constituents and local resources.
“This is the beginning of my journey to becoming a city councilor, and I will work hard to serve the good of my city,” she wrote on Twitter after winning the election.
Young Uyghur girl
Another name that has received a lot of attention this election season is Arfiya Eri, 34, whose parents are Uyghur and Uzbek, with a campaign supporting women's rights and gender equality.
After winning the election to Japan's House of Representatives, Ms. Eri is the first Uyghur woman elected to any state apparatus in the world, according to the World Uyghur Congress (WUC). The organization assessed that her victory has a great role for the Uyghur community in Japan and Uyghurs around the world.
Ms. Arfiya Eri. Photo: Kentaro Takahashi/Bloomberg/Getty Images.
The Uyghurs live largely in the Xinjiang region of western China. Beijing has been accused of human rights abuses in the region against the Uyghurs. In a September 2022 report, the United Nations called these acts “crimes against humanity,” and the United States has accused China of detaining more than 2 million Uyghurs and Muslims in concentration camps. Beijing has denied the allegations.
Ms. Eri is also one of the few members of parliament with origins outside Japan, an ethnically homogeneous country with relatively low immigration levels.
Born in Japan but brought to China as a child, she attended Georgetown University in the United States and worked for the United Nations. According to her website, she researched Uighur issues while studying abroad. A blog post on her website denounces the “horrific oppression and human rights abuses” perpetrated against the Uighurs.
She also focuses on Japan's male-dominated society and politics, highlighting issues such as the gender pay gap, the unfair burden of housework and childcare that women bear, and calling for men to take a more active role in child rearing.
On her blog in 2022, she wrote that the election of a “33-year-old working woman” like her would send a message to the world that “Japan is gradually progressing.”
Nguyen Quang Minh (According to CNN)
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