Aoi Mihoya
AOI MIHOYA
Setagaya Mock Ward Mayoral Election Operations Team, Civic Education Division | Third cohort, joined 2025 | First year, School of Commerce, Waseda University
7 min read
An Instagram post came past the feed with a high-school classmate in the photo. By then the team had been running for more than six months, and Aoi Mihoya knew neither how to write an email nor how to hand over a business card. What followed was a deliberate refusal to say "I can't" — from Adachi to Setagaya, we asked a Questioner who joined midway.
On finding TEIGEN JP
First, a brief introduction, if you would.
I'm Aoi Mihoya. I joined in the third cohort, coming into the Adachi Mock Ward Mayoral Election operation partway through. I now work in the Setagaya Mock Ward Mayoral Election operations section of the Civic Education Division. I'm a first-year student in the School of Commerce at Waseda University.
And how did you first come across TEIGEN JP?
A friend from junior high posted about TEIGEN JP on Instagram, and a classmate from my high school happened to be in the photo. It was a miraculous way to come across it.
It wasn't that you came in already interested in politics, though.
Honestly, at the time I could not say I was interested in politics or social issues. It was just that, with high school coming to an end, I felt a real unease at having no sense of having achieved anything. I thought "I have to do something", and TEIGEN JP was what I jumped into.
Be honest — wasn't jumping in a bit frightening?
Oh, I was scared (laughs). When I came across TEIGEN JP, more than six months had already passed since the team started. So even if I joined, I was very anxious about the relationships, of course, and about whether I could keep up with the work itself. I had never done any extracurricular activity at all, so I did not know how to write an email, how to hand over a business card, how to receive one, or how to run an event.
And you joined anyway. What tipped it?
At the one meeting I sat in on, I was struck by how serious the members were and by the quality of the meeting itself, and at the same time I began to want to be like that. That is what made me decide to join TEIGEN JP.
I realised that staying quiet was no way to close the gap of having joined midway.
On joining midway
Those first weeks must have been nothing but things you didn't know.
I did not know what the events involved or what had been discussed so far. At first I worried about the distance between me and the existing members, but everyone taught me kindly and I fitted in quickly.
Still, "I only joined recently" is an easy thing to hide behind.
There was no time to hold back and say "well, I joined midway…". That is how serious everyone is, and how full the work is. I realised that staying quiet was no way to close the gap of having joined midway.
Staying quiet wasn't an option, then. So what did you do first?
As for the work, I made a point of doing every task I was given perfectly.
Doing that properly every single time takes some grit, though.
Doing the obvious things in the obvious way is surprisingly hard. Maybe I could do it because I hate to lose. I have never thought of myself that way, but other people say it about me a lot (laughs). I do not know whether it came across, but little by little I was able to widen my role.
Where do you think the key to that was?
Looking back, just trying everything was the biggest key.
Everything is surely a figure of speech, though.
Honestly, part of it is that I am the kind of person who cannot refuse when asked, but there was a great deal I picked up by actually doing it. If you are going to run an event with the ward office involved, you have to communicate and build the relationship.
On never saying I can't
I hear there is a phrase you hold on to.
I hold on to the phrase: I don't say I can't. It was my first extracurricular activity and everything was something I could not do, so by deliberately creating a situation where I could not say "I can't", I forced myself to take on anything.
When did that first show?
At the Adachi Mock Ward Mayoral Election, I think it showed in the very first task I was given. The task was to send an email to someone at the ward office, and back then I did not know how to write an email or how to send one.
So what did you do?
I looked everything up from scratch, and when the draft was finished perfectly I felt a real sense of achievement. Since then I have held on to "I don't say I can't".
Giving people who have not noticed their own interest in politics, just as I had not, the chance to notice it.
On an unforgettable meeting
Is there a moment from the work you can't forget? Good or otherwise.
I remember the meeting with the Election Administration Commission and the assembly secretariat vividly.
What happened in that meeting?
I had read the material closely beforehand, and even so I could not speak once.
That must have hit hard.
At the time I honestly lost my motivation and wanted to run away, thinking "why am I putting in all this time only to finish without saying a word?"
How did you pull yourself back from that?
But when I remembered what being part of TEIGEN JP means to me, that disappointment turned into frustration. Since then, whenever I want to run away, I remind myself of the mission: giving people who have not noticed their own interest in politics, just as I had not, the chance to notice it.
On what is still hard
And the other way round — there must still be something you're honestly no good at.
Taking on anything, giving things a go, is important — but the premise is that it stays within your own capacity. I am bad at reading where that limit is.
So out comes "yes, I'll do it".
I say "yes, I'll do it! I'll give it a go!" to absolutely everything and end up well over capacity, all the time (laughs).
When that happens, can you ask anyone for help?
— Honestly, I don't think I'm good at it. When I end up in that state, I tend to ask questions rather than actually talk it through with someone. I want to become able to talk it through and ask for help. And of course the biggest goal is to become able to read my own capacity.
I learned that students can move this many adults.
On what came into view, and what lies ahead
The work must have changed how you see things quite a bit.
I learned that students can move this many adults. That is true not only of events but of politics and social issues too. I realised what a waste it is to think "nothing will change anyway" and do nothing.
Adults are actually counting on teenagers rather a lot, then.
Exactly. Adults need the perspective that only a student, only a teenager, can bring. But few students know that. That not acting is a waste, and that adults need us — that is what we should be telling people through our work.
What form do you want to give that?
So my goal is to take the Mock Ward Mayoral Election nationwide from Adachi. As a first step, I want to hold the Setagaya Mock Ward Mayoral Election.
That is quite a different aim from Adachi.
The Adachi Mock Ward Mayoral Election drew a crowd of participants from all over the country, but for the Setagaya one we are aiming for 90 per cent of participants to be junior and senior high school students from Setagaya.
Ninety per cent is a pretty bold number, isn't it?
It is an ambitious number, I admit (laughs). But if we are looking toward a national rollout, I think each area needs its own character — that is how you reach the people who do not yet know they are interested.
"The latently uninterested" — that's a nice way to put it. How do you reach people with no interest in politics?
I think there are few people with no interest in politics. It may just be that they have not noticed they are interested.
To those thinking of joining
What do you think people joining from now need?
I think TEIGEN JP is a place that needs drive rather than knowledge. Put like that it may sound like nothing more than a sports club, but it is not. Knowledge is necessary for the work — it just comes second to drive. If you have drive, once you are in, your antenna for politics and social issues goes up. You can build the knowledge from there. As long as you mean to turn joining midway from a minus into a plus, you will get through it.
Your old self would be rather surprised, I imagine. What changed most?
I met a version of myself that takes on this much for the first time. Before I joined I was on the side that mocked people doing extracurricular activities as try-hards — unthinkable now (laughs).
Finally: what kind of place is TEIGEN JP for you?
In a word, a starting point. It has been the starting point for meeting a new version of myself, and it is also the starting point at which people who come to our events notice their own interest in politics, social issues and cleaning.
Aoi Mihoya. Third cohort, joined 2025. Joined the Adachi Mock Ward Mayoral Election team partway through the programme; now with the Setagaya Mock Ward Mayoral Election Operations Team, Civic Education Division. First year, School of Commerce, Waseda University.