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About TEIGEN JP

Turning teenagers' questions

Into a TEIGEN that reaches
into something that changes.

TEIGEN JP began with one question from a graduate of a public middle school in Adachi, Tokyo — one "why?" that drew four classmates together. Why we exist. What we believe. How we work. What we mean to leave behind. It is all set out here.

Our Belief

A Question Can Move Society.

The phrase that runs under everything we do. Asking a question is the first act of moving society.

Read OUR BELIEF →

Founding Question

Who gets to meet the person
they have not yet become?

Extracurriculars, volunteering, policy proposals, taking part in public life — all of it ought to be open to anyone. In practice, whether you ever get to the door where you find out what you are capable of depends heavily on what your family can afford, what the schools around you are like, and what information reaches you.

TEIGEN JP started in Adachi, a Tokyo ward with some of the lowest youth turnout and average income of the twenty-three, and built there the chance to put a TEIGEN forward — a chance that should be open to any teenager.

We are not trying to build a club for teenagers who are already engaged. Someone who has no idea yet what they are capable of meets people they would never otherwise have met, and finds words for what feels wrong to them. Those words grow into a question, and the question becomes a TEIGEN that is theirs alone, addressed to society. TEIGEN JP is the community where that first step happens.

TEIGEN JP members, 2026

Mission / Vision / Value

Civic education builds the ability to take part in how decisions get made; community cleanup builds the feeling that the nearest piece of the public is yours to carry. They are not two programs but one education: raising people who see the society around them as theirs.

Our Mission

Give every teenager the chance to discover who they have yet to become.

Speaking your mind and taking part in public life should not belong to a handful of students. We are opening that to every teenager.

Why"meeting the person you have not yet become"?

TEIGEN JP runs on two wheels: civic education and community cleanup. I started both because I genuinely believed they were needed and worth doing.

But how do two different fields sit under one mission? Arguing it through, we went back to what we had written at the founding, and what caught us was the phrase "meeting the person you have not yet become". That phrase carries everything I feel about the friends my own age I met in Adachi.

Teenagers all over the country stand up and start running programs for people their own age. And along the way the organizers, the participants, and even the friends watching from behind them find out what they are capable of.

That is what lies beyond our vision —
the mission we intend to complete whatever it takes.

Soka Horii
Soka HoriiFounder and Director, TEIGEN JP　Read the director's message →

Our Vision

TEIGEN VISION 2030

By 2030, civic education and community cleanup in all 47 prefectures. The model sharpened in Adachi, taken to classrooms across Japan.

See the TEIGEN VISION 2030 page →

Our Value

Always Be a Questioner.
— always be a questioner.

Question how things are, at every moment. Reopen the assumptions society runs on. Keep turning unease into a TEIGEN.

If Newton had not wondered about the apple, gravity would not have been found. We hold to the stance of the Questioner — someone who questions how things are, stays curious about the world, and keeps producing change.

"Questioner" is also what we call each other.

An illustration of Newton holding an apple, the emblem of the Questioner

The three principles of a Questioner

Principle 01

Think, then move

Don't let the small wrongnesses in daily life or in society go past you. Put them into words as a question, and turn the question into a concrete TEIGEN

Principle 02

Go back to why

Keep asking why we are doing this, and hold out for work that matters when seen from every stakeholder's side

Principle 03

Professional, without exception

God is in the details. Documents, branding, presentations, how you carry yourself — all of it held to the same standard

Always Be a Questioner.A Questioner is the product of all three.
Every member lined up in the pose of The Thinker
"Questioner" is what we call each other. Asking is how this organization behaves.
Soka Horii, Director of TEIGEN JP, speaking
Our deputy director speaking
The Mock Ward Mayoral Election in progress
A group photo in the assembly chamber
Winning the national competition

Definition

teigenTEIGEN

TEIGEN

nounalso used as a verb

  1. To begin from a question about society, express it as a plan, a policy or an action, and put it to the world.
  2. To work on the thing that felt wrong to you, the problem you cannot leave alone, and by doing so to produce a change in society — small, but real.

— our definition, arrived at after three years of chasing it.

High school students raising their hands to speak in the assembly chamber
Our work in progress
TEIGEN JP members
A workshop in progress
A group photo outside the assembly chamber
Debate at the general meeting

History

From one person's question
to an organization that moves things.

It began in June 2023, with a question shared by four classmates from a public middle school in Adachi. Three years of it are published as a timeline, with the primary records from the time.

2023Founding

  • June: the team "TEIGEN at Fifteen" is formed
  • October: first prize at the inaugural National High School Policy Championship
  • November: the first Mock Ward Mayoral Election
  • December: presenting policy to the then Prime Minister

2024–2025Acceleration and growth

  • June 2024: renamed TEIGEN JP
  • August 2024: meeting with the Toronto Youth Cabinet
  • July 2025: four divisions created; we become an organization
  • December 2025: Osouji-tai delivered for the first time, at Adachi Elementary School

2026The second founding

  • March: Mock Ward Mayoral Election 2026, funded by a successful crowdfunding campaign
  • April: speaking in Ikeda, Osaka — our first engagement outside Tokyo
  • May: the five-year vision committee is formed

See all 28 milestones, with the records

Organization

Organization Profile

NameTEIGEN JP, a student organization
Written asTEIGEN JP is the official form; TEIGENJP and teigen jp also appear. Formerly "TEIGEN at Fifteen".
Founded1 June 2023
DirectorSoka Horii (first year, Faculty of Policy Management, Keio University)
Officers Executive OfficeDeputy DirectorYuzuki Nanao (first year, Faculty of International Liberal Arts, Dokkyo University) Executive OfficeHead of Internal AffairsAyane Yamamoto (first year, School of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University) Branding and Strategy DivisionManagerAnju Ishikawa (second year, Ikubunkan Global High School) Civic Education DivisionManagerSaki Akiyama (first year, Faculty of Law, Keio University) Civic Education DivisionProject Manager, Adachi Mock Ward Mayoral ElectionShuta Kanehara (second year, Sakuragaoka High School) Civic Education DivisionProject Manager, Setagaya Mock Ward Mayoral ElectionKatsuki Obana (first year, Faculty of Law, Chuo University) Civic Education DivisionProject Manager, Tokyo Mock Gubernatorial ElectionAtsushi Tamaki (first year, Faculty of Policy Management, Keio University) Clean Education DivisionManagerMasatsugu Goto (first year, Faculty of Letters, Chuo University)
Based inAdachi, Tokyo — and outward from there, across Tokyo and the country
Members38 as of June 2026, from first-year high school to first-year university
Founding purposeUnder the principle Always Be a Questioner, to support young people — particularly those aged 18 and under — in raising questions about social problems as protagonists of politics and society, and in giving those questions form as TEIGEN and as action through voting and other participation in public life; and to create, on a continuing basis, the opportunities and institutions that make this possible. (Article 3 of our articles of association)
Activities1. Public service and public-awareness work in politics and education, centred on civic education and active learning
2. External competitions and the youth advocacy — the TEIGEN — that goes with them
3. Any other work that serves the vision
Main partnersAdachi Ward Office, Adachi Ward Assembly, Adachi Board of Education, Adachi Election Administration Commission, Duskin Co., Ltd. and others
MembershipsJapan Youth Conference, JYPS and others
Contact Uscontact@teigenjp.org

Governance

Structure and governance

An organization that runs on one person's energy does not last. TEIGEN JP makes the general meeting its highest decision-making body and, through the board, monthly reporting and a code of conduct, runs itself as an organization rather than as a student club.

Members around a table, writing on their papers as the meeting goes on
Behind the org chart are meetings like this one, and the handovers between them.

Read the director's message →

Reproducing the layout and division colours of the official 2026 organization chart (©2026 TEIGEN JP)

The monthly governance cycle

Every month runs the same loop: one-to-ones → monthly reports → a one-to-one with the director → the regular board meeting → the all-hands. Each division files a monthly report covering how it feels, progress, problems, proposed fixes, outlook, KPIs and what help it needs; after the one-to-ones it goes to the board at the end of the month. Minutes are shared within 48 hours. It keeps knowledge from living in one person's head while leaving each division to run itself, so that plan-do-check-act turns both inside a division and across the whole organization.

Questioner PolicyCode of conduct

Because high school and university students work side by side here, the policy bans drinking and smoking under 20 and drugs outright, prohibits inappropriate personal relationships, sets out protections for high school members, and forbids members paying for each other. Breaches go to the board. A safe place to work is something we protect by rule, not by hope.

TEIGEN DojoTraining

Hands-on training in business email, formal Japanese, writing a proposal, presenting, the basics of project management, and how to deal with people outside the organization. It includes management training for officers, "lead by what you do". Being a professional even as a student is guaranteed by drill, not by exhortation.

Base

Where we work

Online day to day, with the ward office, community halls and outside venues used as each program requires.

Offline 01Adachi City Hall

Main base for the Mock Ward Mayoral Election and our work with government.

Offline 02Ginza Community Hall

General meetings and regular meetings.

Offline 03Tokyo Innovation Base

Large events and outside partnerships.

OnlineZoom / Discord

The daily backbone connecting members across Tokyo and the three surrounding prefectures.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

The three questions we are asked most: what this organization is, who can join, and how neutrality works.

What kind of organization is TEIGEN JP?
A student organization founded in June 2023. Based in Adachi, Tokyo, 38 high school and university students (as of June 2026) work on two pillars: civic education and youth participation, and community cleanup and public-mindedness. The flagship program is the Mock Ward Mayoral Election, hands-on civic education co-created with the Adachi Ward Office, Ward Assembly, Board of Education and Election Administration Commission. Participants analyse a local problem, draft policy, stand as candidates, deliberate and vote — the whole process. Alongside it we run Osouji-tai: Protect Your Neighborhood, an outreach class for elementary schools developed with Duskin Co., Ltd. Everything is planned and run by students. Our director is the founder, Soka Horii.
Who can join?
High school and university students. More than half of our members — 53% as of June 2026 — are in high school, and because we work mostly online they come from all over Tokyo and the three neighbouring prefectures, from many different schools. How much you already know about politics or society does not matter. What matters is that you carry a question about the world. Recruitment in Tokyo normally opens once a year, so availability depends on when you ask. Outside recruitment season we are always happy to talk to teenagers who want to start a Mock Ward Mayoral Election or a cleanup program where they live (thirty minutes, free).
How do you guarantee political neutrality?
Our Position on Political Neutrality was written down by the board and is published in full. Three points. First, as an organization we neither support nor oppose any party, political body or candidate, and we run nothing designed to steer participants toward a particular policy conclusion or a particular vote. Second, that is not a demand that participants themselves be neutral. They are expected to hold views and to argue for and against. What we guarantee is not a room without opinions but a room where differing opinions are treated fairly. Third, following Article 14 of the Basic Act on Education and the notices issued by the Ministry of Education, we apply the same code to our own independent programs as we do to anything run with a school. At the same time, we will not use neutrality as a reason to narrow the chances teenagers get to learn about politics and society and argue about them.

The full neutrality policy is at Policy on Political Neutrality, and details about joining are on the Get Involved page.

Next

Now that you know where we are,
here is where we are going.

See VISION 2030 Join as a Questioner