Four Turning Points
Four turning points
Four of the 28 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 fifteen-year-old growing up in Adachi finds it wrong that your circumstances decide whether you get to take part in society at all. Why is there no way for a teenager to stand on the side that changes things? Three classmates gathered around that question, and at the first Mock Ward Mayoral Election gave civic education a shape in which teenagers carry it from drafting policy through to the count.
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 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 judgement 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 ChampionshipSupported by the Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Education. Our TEIGEN — mock elections nationwide, and digital election reform — won the national title, and the organization began in earnest.See the record →
NHK President's AwardOctober: 70th High School Students' Speech Contest for International Understanding and CooperationHosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and 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.See the record →
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. Beforehand we paid courtesy visits to Mayor Yayoi Kondo and Speaker Tetsuya Kudo.Read the report →
The Prime Minister's OfficeDecember: courtesy visit and policy presentation to then Prime Minister Fumio KishidaProposing mock elections in schools, and a concept for a digital election system.See the record →
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.See the recruitment record →
April: 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.See the record →
June: renamed TEIGEN JPFrom a name closed around one age to one open to every teenager in the country.See the record →
August: 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.See the record →
InternationalAugust: meeting the 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.See the record →
November: attending the Youth Leader Forum as the representative for TokyoHosted by the Association for Promoting Fair Elections and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. An exchange of practice with youth leaders from across the country.See the record →
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.See the record →
March: Mock Ward Mayoral Election 2025, in the ward office hall for the first timeThirty middle and high school students took part, with eleven ward assembly members helping. Participant satisfaction: 3.73 out of 4.00.Read the report →
March: supporting civic 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.See the record →
May: the third cohort of Questioners joinsNew members from across Tokyo and the three neighbouring prefectures, and the ground laid for moving to a divisional structure.See the recruitment record →
InternationalJune: student panellist at the special lecture by Mercy Tembon, then Vice President of the World BankA discussion on youth participation and youth councils worldwide. Drawing on the Mock Ward Mayoral Election and on what we had learned from the Toronto Youth Cabinet, we argued that teenagers' voices have to be connected to policy by institution, not by goodwill.See the record →
June: guest speaker at the Adachi 100-Person MeetingStanding as a teenage practitioner in a room of adults who work in the community.See the record →
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 director's energy to running on divisions and rules.See the record →
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.See the record →
AwardAugust: Award of Excellence at Earth Day Tokyo's fourth NEO AwardsThe entry was exhibited at Marui Yurakucho.See the record →
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.See the record →
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.See the record →
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 — and Duskin Co., Ltd. alongside us, we delivered the first class. 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 record →
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 civic education programs.See the record →
HeldMarch: Mock Ward Mayoral Election 2026 — The Other Side of the Ballot BoxParticipants drafted policy, stood as candidates, deliberated, voted and counted. The previous year's participants were now at the centre of running it.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.See the record →
April: 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.See the record →
Special bodyMay: 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.See the record →
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.See the recruitment record →
Entries are added as they happen. Dates are when the event took place, which may differ from the month it was posted on Instagram.