Shuta Kanehara
SHUTA KANEHARA
Project Manager, Adachi Mock Ward Mayoral Election, Civic Education Division | Third cohort, joined 2025 | Second year, Sakuragaoka High School
7 min read
In his third year of middle school he was in the room as a participant at the Mock Ward Mayoral Election. Now he runs the ground operation of that same program with a team made up entirely of high school students. We asked him about moving a program with only his own generation, balancing it with school, and his goal of "a team that runs without me."
On joining
First, a brief introduction, if you would.
I'm Shuta Kanehara. I joined in the third cohort. I'm a second-year student at Sakuragaoka High School, and I'm the project manager of the Adachi Mock Ward Mayoral Election operations section.
When did you first hear of TEIGEN JP?
What brought TEIGEN JP to my attention was the Adachi Mock Ward Mayoral Election, which I took part in during my third year of middle school.
How did that room look to a third-year middle schooler?
I remember being overwhelmed — this was an organization run entirely by high school students, and yet the professionalism and the finish you could feel on the ground were extraordinary. I was strongly drawn in, thinking that an organization like this really existed. At the same time I felt that if I took things on here I would grow, and I decided to join as part of the third cohort.
Did you know much about politics beforehand?
Not especially, no (laughs). It was not that I had no interest in politics, but it was not especially strong either. I started from an ordinary level of interest, and as I worked here my interest in day-to-day politics and social problems, and my awareness of them, grew little by little.
Is what you pictured on joining still the same today?
To move from taking part in the Mock Ward Mayoral Election to standing on the side that brings other people in. Wanting to spread civic education across the whole country, by designing and refining a Mock Ward Mayoral Election that draws people in and involves them further — that has not changed at all, from the day I joined until now.
I had to face this work with more responsibility than that.
On the first job
What was the first job you did once you were on the organizing side?
The first work I took on after moving to the organizing side was administrative and coordination work — correspondence of various kinds, answering emails.
Did you handle it smoothly from the start?
Oh, not at all. At first even one of those basic exchanges gave me trouble. It was trial and error, one after another (laughs).
At some point something switched on, I gather.
In the middle of that came a moment when our director, Horii, said to me: if you don't do it, the program doesn't run. Hearing that, it hit me that I really had been handed an important role, and that I was trusted with it.
And what changed after that?
It was an important moment for me — my thinking shifted considerably, to: I have to take more responsibility for this work.
On becoming project manager
How did the project manager role come to you?
It started when Horii, our director, raised the coming year with me, just after last year's Mock Ward Mayoral Election had finished. It was the moment when I had already decided, privately, that next year I would produce a real result running the Mock Ward Mayoral Election.
Honestly — wasn't the nervousness the bigger part?
Actually, it was the opposite. When the appointment was put to me, rather than nerves or hesitation, I was full of straightforward delight and curiosity, and the excitement of let's do this (laughs).
I feel no difficulty and no resistance at all about the difference in age.
Every member of the Adachi Mock Ward Mayoral Election section is a high school student. There are older members elsewhere in the division, though — is that ever awkward?
As for how I work with university students and members senior to me, I feel no difficulty and no resistance at all about the difference in age.
What are you looking at instead?
Regardless of age or cohort, I keep my attention on the aim itself: how can we build a better team, how can we set up an environment in which everyone can move easily. Focusing on role and ability rather than age is, I think, what has let us build a flat team with a good atmosphere.
So where is the hardest part?
What I find hardest as project manager is managing the team's motivation, and managing the small matters of quality in things like meetings.
How are you working at it?
On how to lift each person's condition and hold the quality of our meetings, I hold one-on-ones with Horii, our director, and with the manager of the Civic Education Division, Akiyama, and I ask them for advice day to day, working my way steadily toward answers. I can feel myself growing with the help of the people ahead of me, and I intend to keep raising the quality.
On the hardest stretch
When was the hardest of it so far?
The hardest was a stretch when meetings landed one after another and a huge number of tasks piled up waiting to be dealt with.
Did it feel like you were at your limit?
Honestly, I think I was close. It was the moment I came close to exceeding my capacity, and felt the pressure.
That sounds like a serious stretch.
I am still learning, but that hard experience taught me first-hand how much it matters to set priorities clearly and to actually carry out schedule management.
You didn't carry it alone, then.
Yes. Here too, the people ahead of me taught me concrete methods for managing it and gave me advice, and I got through. I will keep at it.
However capable the person, an organization that depends on one person is fragile, and nothing runs well.
On the team he is aiming for
What kind of team are you aiming for?
The team I am aiming for is one that runs itself without me.
What do you do when work you handed over goes wrong?
If I hand work to a member and it goes wrong, I do not consider that a bad thing at all. Because I believe that being given something and experiencing failure is the greatest chance to grow that person will get. A team that depends on an individual stops holding together the moment that person is gone.
Is that a personal creed of yours, too?
The beliefs I hold to are: do not build a team that depends on one person, and do not carry things alone — ask, and take in the views of many people. However capable the person, an organization that depends on one person is fragile, and nothing runs well.
What are you doing about it, concretely?
To that end I want to build a firm pattern that does not depend on any particular person, and an organization with a foundation that lasts. That is exactly why I hold to this as my own axis: build the mechanism — the pattern — so that anyone can act, and move forward without carrying it alone, taking in other people's views and asking their advice.
On balancing school
You're in your second year of high school. How do you keep up with school?
During exam periods and the like I use the provision the organization has for putting schoolwork first, and I feel I am managing both without letting my studies slide.
Having someone to ask must count for a lot.
It counts for a lot. It is precisely because there are people around me I can ask that I can keep running while holding the balance.
On what changed
You before joining, and you now. Where is the biggest difference?
Since joining TEIGEN JP, how I see life and how I think about things have changed fundamentally.
What set that off?
The influence of Horii, our director, was particularly large. Meeting the idea that you can sleep all you like once you are dead, and that you should live without leaving regrets while you are alive, transformed how I saw my days and this work.
What did you take away from that?
To take things on without fear, and to face them with resolve. That resolve, which I learned through the work here, is what I feel has built the person I am now.
On what comes next
What kind of Mock Ward Mayoral Election do you want to build from here?
The Mock Ward Mayoral Election I want to build is one that satisfies people more than before — overwhelmingly high in quality as civic education, and with real impact. I will pursue that quality without ever letting it drift.
What do you want to leave the next cohort?
The team culture I want to leave to those coming after us is one that depends on no particular person, that nobody monopolizes, and that everyone builds together. I want to give that mechanism and that mindset a firm form and hand it on.
Last question. What is TEIGEN JP, to you?
For me, TEIGEN JP is, in a word, home. That is how much it accepts me, lets me take things on, and makes me grow — it is the place underneath it all.
Shuta Kanehara. Third cohort, joined 2025. Project Manager, Adachi Mock Ward Mayoral Election, Civic Education Division. Second year, Sakuragaoka High School.