Four Turning Points
Four turning points
Four of the 34 entries are moments when the shape of the organization changed. This is how one person's question became somebody else's opportunity.
01 / QUESTION2023 | From one question to four people acting on itA 15-year-old who grew up in Adachi felt something was wrong: the chance to take part in society depended on where you happened to be. "Why don't teenagers get the chance to be the ones who change society?" Three friends joined that question to form the team. Four months later it placed first in Japan at the 1st National High School Policy Championship; in November the first Mock Ward Mayoral Election gave shape to citizenship education in which teenagers handle everything from drafting policy to counting votes; and in December the team proposed to the then Prime Minister, at the Prime Minister's Office, that schools introduce mock elections.
02 / WORLD2024 | Looking outward, and bringing the lessons back into the designAn open call brought in the second cohort of Questioners, building a mechanism for handing over between generations, and the name became TEIGEN JP. Competing at The World Scholar's Cup and meeting the Executive Director of the Toronto Youth Cabinet brought back how youth participation is organized abroad — the starting point of what became the youth council model.
03 / RELAY2025 | Participants become the people who run itA high school student who had taken part in the Mock Ward Mayoral Election starts running the next one. The teenager who received the opportunity begins handing it to the next.
04 / SYSTEM2026 | Turning drive into structureThirty-eight people carrying several programs across several areas. With a board, a head of internal affairs, division leads and alumni alongside them, the organization stops depending on one person's judgment and energy and starts being able to hand both its principles and its decisions to the next generation.
2023 | FoundingIt begins with four classmates out of a public middle school in Adachi.
June: the team "TEIGEN at Fifteen" is formedFounded by four classmates who had served on the student council and as class representatives. The forerunner of TEIGEN JP.
National first prizeOctober: first prize at the inaugural National High School Policy ChampionshipHosted by Junior Chamber International Japan; supported by the Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, and the Ministry of Education. Ten teams, selected on paper from 102 teams and 406 students nationwide, reached the main round at the National Diet Building; in the final we received 2,612 votes and won the national title with our TEIGEN — mock elections nationwide, and digital election reform — and the organization began in earnest.→
NHK President's AwardOctober: 70th High School Students' Speech Contest for International Understanding and CooperationHosted by the United Nations Association of Japan. Special Prize in the Tokyo round at JICA Global Plaza, where twenty finalists competed; then, representing Tokyo, the NHK President's Award in the national round at the Elizabeth Rose Conference Hall, United Nations University, from 301 entries nationwide.→
November: the first Mock Ward Mayoral Election — The Other Side of the Ballot BoxCo-created with the Adachi Ward Office, Ward Assembly, Board of Education, Election Administration Commission and private partners. Before the event, the team paid courtesy visits to Mayor Yayoi Kondo and Assembly Chair Tetsuya Kudo.Read the report →
The Prime Minister's OfficeDecember: courtesy visit and policy proposal to then Prime Minister Fumio KishidaProposing mock elections in schools, and a concept for a digital election system.→
2024 | AccelerationEnjoying the journey, and learning on a wider stage.
March: the second cohort of Questioners joinsFrom four founders to an open call — the beginning of a mechanism for handing over between generations.→
HonoredApril: featured in issue 87 of Adachi Kyoiku DayoriPublished by the Adachi Board of Education. Its feature on students doing notable things followed us for about three months. Distributed to more than a hundred elementary and middle schools in the ward — our first appearance in an official publication.Read the article →
June: renamed TEIGEN JPFrom a name closed around one age to one open to every teenager in the country.Read the renaming notice →
WorldAugust: through the Global Round of The World Scholar's Cup 2024An academic competition with more than 50,000 participants from 60 countries. Having come through the Tokyo Round, our member competed for Japan at the global round in Dalian, China, and qualified for the finals.→
InternationalAugust: meeting the Executive Director of the Toronto Youth CabinetStudying how Toronto organizes youth participation and building a working relationship — the starting point of what became the youth council model.→
November: Took part in the Youth Leader Forum (Kanto–Koshinetsu–Shizuoka block) as Tokyo's representativeOrganized by the Association for Promoting Fair Elections and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. We exchanged citizenship education practice with citizenship education groups and election officials from each prefecture in the block.→
2025 | GrowthNew people, a larger operation, and more attention from outside.
January: taking part in the fourth Kasa Festival at Bunkyo UniversityStaffing the Adachi Election Administration Commission's booth, "A Vote for the Future", and running a mock election with its mascot. Our work with the commission began in earnest here.→
Co-hostingMarch: Mock Ward Mayoral Election 2025, co-hosted with the Adachi Election Administration CommissionFirst use of the ward office's main hall. 30 junior high and high school participants, 11 ward assembly members involved, participant satisfaction 3.73/4.00.Read the report →
March: supporting citizenship education at Tokyo Metropolitan Kohoku High SchoolStaffing a program run by the Chuo University society Vote at Chuo!! and the Adachi Election Administration Commission. Around 320 second-year students voted in a mock election using real polling booths and ballot papers.→
May: the third cohort of Questioners joinsNew members from across Tokyo and the three neighboring prefectures, and the ground laid for moving to a divisional structure.→
International DialogueJune: in conversation with Mercy Tembon, then Vice President of the World BankAt the special lecture, a conversation on youth participation and youth councils around the world. Drawing on the Mock Ward Mayoral Election and an exchange of practice with the Toronto Youth Cabinet, Horii argued for institutional pathways that connect teenage voices to policy.→
June: guest speaker at the Adachi 100-Person MeetingStanding as a teenage practitioner in a room of adults who work in the community.→
July: the 2025 general meetingFour divisions created, including Branding Strategy and the Clean Education Division, which builds public-mindedness in children through cleaning classes. The turn from running on the executive director's energy to running on divisions and rules.→
SpeakingJuly: in conversation with Ryosuke Takashima, Mayor of Ashiya, at Summer Conference 2025Hosted by Junior Chamber International Japan at Pacifico Yokohama, on "What civic education changes about a town and its future". We set out the structural reasons young people find it hard to care about politics, and argued for a framework in which government, schools and the community together give those voices a form.→
AwardAugust: Award of Excellence at Earth Day Tokyo's fourth NEO AwardsThe entry was exhibited at Marui Yurakucho.→
August: working on a special issue of the Adachi Election Administration Commission's Senkyo ShikiA leaflet given to residents who have just become voters. Members appeared in it and worked on its production, design included.→
November: taking part in the fifth Kasa Festival at Bunkyo UniversityAt the Adachi Election Administration Commission's booth, running a sticker-design election with real polling equipment.→
December: the first Osouji-tai: Protect Your Neighborhood, at Adachi Municipal Adachi Elementary SchoolWith the Clean Education Division properly staffed — a manager appointed and six high school members involved — we delivered the first class, using the curriculum developed with the cooperation of Duskin Co., Ltd. The second pillar started moving.Read the report →
2026 | The second foundingFounding TEIGEN JP a second time, starting from a long-term vision.
February: crowdfunding opens for Mock Ward Mayoral Election 2026We published the argument — what is missing is not lessons about politics but chances to do it — and asked for money from outside for the first time.See the crowdfunding campaign →
FundedMarch: the crowdfunding target is metTwenty-six people gave ¥279,000 in total, 139% of the target, reached just before the event. It went to running the Mock Ward Mayoral Election, the general meeting, and future citizenship education programs.→
Mayor attendedMarch: Mock Ward Mayoral Election 2026 — The Other Side of the Ballot BoxCo-hosted with the Adachi Election Administration Commission (supported by the Board of Education). With Mayor Yayoi Kondo in attendance and ward and national legislators watching, participants drafted policy, ran as candidates, deliberated and voted. Last year's participants moved to the core of the organizing team, closing the loop.Read the report →
March: the winning team pays a courtesy visit to Mayor Yayoi KondoThe four elected as mock mayor, with the operations section, visited the ward office and talked about making the area livable for a wider range of people and about places for young people to be. Winning was not designed to be the end: the arc runs all the way to putting a TEIGEN forward.→
With mayorsApril: speaking at "High School Students Ask Japan's Leaders: Hints for How to Live"At the Ikeda Civic Cultural Hall, in conversation with Ryo Harada, Mayor of Minoh, and Koji Morita, Mayor of Miyake, before an audience of about a hundred, mostly middle and high school students from Osaka: how a teenager with few chances to take part in politics can still be heard. Our first engagement outside Tokyo.→
May: the five-year vision committee is formedA structure in which the medium- and long-term direction is decided by the organization itself. It became the body that wrote TEIGEN VISION 2030.Read the launch notice →
May: the recruitment process for the fourth cohort of QuestionersBriefing, application and result all online. Taking part regardless of where you live is now simply how it works.→
June: 2026 General AssemblyAll 38 members met to reaffirm our mission and share the year's plans. From this year, TEIGEN JP became an organization of high school and university students together.→
AssemblyJune: Speaking at a study session for Yashio City Council, SaitamaAt Yashio City Hall, we spoke at a councillors' study session on the future of local assemblies, presenting the Mock Ward Mayoral Election in Adachi as an early model for teenage political participation, then exchanged views with the councillors.→
July: Talk at Aichi Prefectural Tokai Shofu High SchoolDrawing on the Policy Championship, a talk to students on turning your own experience into policy. Covered by the local cable TV station.→
Special ×3September: Three special awards at MIRAI CREATOR'Z 2026, a national award for young people shaping Japan's futureOrganized by the Japan Youth Career Support Association. In its first edition, open to people aged 10 to 30 nationwide, about 1,500 took part; our founder Soka Horii received three special awards (the SHIBUYA QWS Award, the Japan Association of New Public Award and the Yomite Award).