WITH TEIGEN JP
Make it happen together
Classes, regional projects, talks, co-hosted events, institutional design, sponsorship and press. Three questions narrow these down to the route you can act on now.
Find your route in three questionsHome / CO-CREATE
Join Us
There is more than one way in.
TEIGEN JP is an organization of Questioners, mostly high school and university students. It is not a club that exists to be fun. It carries responsibility and real work — and because of that, experience you will not get elsewhere.
Ways to Engage
Let's build it together
Start by choosing how you want to act, not which category you fit. Create something with TEIGEN JP, or become the person who drives it. Then choose the specific route.
AS TEIGEN JP
Be the one who acts
Launch a model in your community, or join the organization as a Questioner. Two routes for teenagers and students ready to act.
Choose & Compare
Find the right way to work together from where you are now.
Choose your role, what you want to achieve, and how far your plans have progressed. We will suggest the most practical route now, from classes and speaking to co-planned events, institutional design, sponsorship, and press.
First ChoiceFirst choice
Mock Ward Mayoral Election for School
For a school still exploring the options, we begin with the school version, which covers policymaking through voting in two to four periods, and clarify the conditions for a class.
Schools
Civic education or a mock election
I am exploring the options
- Route
- Schools and outreach classes
- Readiness
- Dates can be undecided
- Next step
- Clarify grade level and time
Also consider
Core Model Matrix
Compare the four core models on the same terms.
When the navigator's first choice is a core model, its row is highlighted in gold. Active programs and concepts in development are separated, using only published information.
| model | Primary audience | What participants experience | Time and scale | Current stage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01Regional Mock Mayoral ElectionCommunity projectFirst choice | Primary audienceLocal middle and high school students and teenagers | What participants experienceCommunity issues, policymaking, candidacy, speeches, and voting | Time and scaleTailored as a community event | Current stageActiveDelivered three times in Adachi | Details→ |
| 02Mock Ward Mayoral Election for SchoolSchool-based civic educationFirst choice | Primary audienceMiddle and high school | What participants experienceExperience policymaking through voting at school | Time and scale2–4 JPY 30,000–50,000 per program plus expenses | Current stageActiveTailored to each school | Details→ |
| 03Osouji-tai: Protect Your NeighborhoodSchool-based cleaning educationFirst choice | Primary audiencePrimary school students, all grades | What participants experienceExperience caring for shared spaces through cleaning | Time and scale1 Fees discussed individually | Current stageActiveDelivered across three classes | Details→ |
| 04Youth Council ModelInstitutional design for local governmentFirst choice | Primary audienceAges 13–24 and local government | What participants experienceA standing channel connecting youth proposals to policymaking | Time and scaleDesigned as an ongoing institution | Current stageIn developmentUnder research with Adachi as the model area | Details→ |
For School
For Schools
Mock Ward Mayoral Election for School takes students from drafting policy through candidacy, speeches and voting; alongside it we run civic education and cleanup outreach classes. Delivery is built on what we learned working with the election administration commission, and runs from two periods upward. If you can only free up one, we come as a speaker instead.
So far: six deliveries, 240 participants in total — three Mock Ward Mayoral Elections in Adachi and three deliveries of Osouji-tai: Protect Your Neighborhood in elementary schools, among others.
Every fee goes to running the organization and developing the materials. It is what it costs to keep giving teenagers a real experience of democracy, not a way of making money.How we think about cost →
For Government
For Local Government
From co-hosting and sponsoring events, through designing election-awareness work for younger people, to research collaboration on the youth council model that would wire teenagers' voices into policy. We reach, in their own generation's words, the people government finds hardest to reach.
So far: work with the Adachi Ward Office, Ward Assembly, Board of Education and Election Administration Commission, and a contribution to the commission's own publication.
All 47 prefectures by 2030 — TEIGEN VISION 2030. Would you be one of its first municipal partners? Start with a free thirty-minute conversation.
For Corporate
For Companies and Foundations
Sponsorship and donations, CSR and CSV partnerships, materials, goods and venues — we welcome any partnership that runs through the work itself. Your expertise raises the quality of what teenagers learn, directly. We also take on corporate training built around a teenage perspective, and programs co-created from your business and ours.
So far: Duskin Co., Ltd. (cooperation in the development of the Osouji-tai cleanup education curriculum), among others.
So that teenagers keep getting to practice democracy.
We are not asking for sponsorship and donations so we can grow and turn a profit.This is what it costs to keep opening, next year and the year after, a place where teenagers experience real democracy. Hands-on civic education only happens once the documents are written, the materials are bought, and people have physically traveled there. Unless someone carries that, it runs on money out of the executive director's and a few members' own pockets, thins out, and eventually stops.
MATERIALS
Materials
Election bulletins, worksheets, ballot papers, and the equipment for the cleanup class. Anything a participant takes home is a direct cost.
OPERATION
Running the day
Setting up and clearing the venue, photographing the record, guiding participants. The costs that hold one event together and are hardest to see.
TRAVEL
Travel
The work happens where the schools and the municipalities are. There is a limit to how far high school and university students can keep traveling at their own expense.
DEVELOPMENT
Developing materials and training
Getting the program into a form another region can pick up, and training the students who will run it. The furthest-reaching investment toward 47 prefectures by 2030.
Everything given goes to running the organization and developing the materials.Fees from schools and municipalities are treated the same way. The breakdown, and what we did with the support given through the 2026 crowdfunding campaign, are published on the page on how support is used.
Partners & Collaborations
The institutions, companies and
organizations who built this with us.
GOVERNMENTAdachi Ward AssemblyWARD ASSEMBLYAdachi Board of EducationBOARD OF EDUCATIONAdachi Election Administration CommissionELECTION COMMISSION
COOPERATION
YOUTH NETWORK
FORUM
AWARDJunior Chamber International JapanCONFERENCE
GOVERNMENTAdachi Ward AssemblyWARD ASSEMBLYAdachi Board of EducationBOARD OF EDUCATIONAdachi Election Administration CommissionELECTION COMMISSIONCOOPERATIONYOUTH NETWORKFORUMAWARDJunior Chamber International JapanCONFERENCE
GOVERNMENTAdachi Ward AssemblyWARD ASSEMBLYAdachi Board of EducationBOARD OF EDUCATIONAdachi Election Administration CommissionELECTION COMMISSIONCOOPERATIONYOUTH NETWORKFORUMAWARDJunior Chamber International JapanCONFERENCE
GOVERNMENTAdachi Ward AssemblyWARD ASSEMBLYAdachi Board of EducationBOARD OF EDUCATIONAdachi Election Administration CommissionELECTION COMMISSIONCOOPERATIONYOUTH NETWORKFORUMAWARDJunior Chamber International JapanCONFERENCE
YOUTH PLATFORM
GLOBAL
AWARD
ENVIRONMENT
EDUCATION
YOUTH ELECTION
STUDENT ORGANIZATION
YOUTH PLATFORMGLOBALAWARDENVIRONMENTEDUCATIONYOUTH ELECTIONSTUDENT ORGANIZATION
YOUTH PLATFORMGLOBALAWARDENVIRONMENTEDUCATIONYOUTH ELECTIONSTUDENT ORGANIZATION
YOUTH PLATFORMGLOBALAWARDENVIRONMENTEDUCATIONYOUTH ELECTIONSTUDENT ORGANIZATION
YOUTH PLATFORMGLOBALAWARDENVIRONMENTEDUCATIONYOUTH ELECTIONSTUDENT ORGANIZATION
YOUTH PLATFORMGLOBALAWARDENVIRONMENTEDUCATIONYOUTH ELECTIONSTUDENT ORGANIZATION
Co-hosts, supporters, partners, memberships and speaking invitations. Partial list, in no particular order.See what we have built with others →
For Teens | From where you live
Why not start TEIGEN JP
in your own town?
The Mock Ward Mayoral Election and Osouji-tai are finished models. What is missing is the question your town raises. We will stay with you from finding people to dealing with the local authority — as part of TEIGEN VISION 2030, which opens a door for teenagers in all 47 prefectures by 2030.
Recruitment in Tokyo normally opens once a year, and the fourth cohort for 2026 has closed; the next round will be announced in our news and on social media. Inquiries about starting a Mock Ward Mayoral Election or an Osouji-tai where you live are taken all year. Below: what you get out of it, what protects you, and how to apply.
How to start is written up in TEIGEN Answers, our knowledge base.The first three months →How to approach the local authority →When nobody joins →
What You Gain
Experience you will not get elsewhere.
The front line of working with government
The Assembly Speaker's office, a meeting room in the ward office, occasionally the Prime Minister's Office. Standing at the front of that as a student, and pushing a project through it, is worth something you cannot easily get anywhere else.
Standing in front of a class
Outreach classes in elementary, middle and high schools. Teaching the generation behind you is how you learn to speak like a person and to present so it lands.
Meeting people
People your own age building from nothing, and also Diet members, mayors, public servants, teachers. Meeting that many different worlds changes what you can see.
Ground to try things in
Know-how, contacts, budget and a platform for turning your own inquiry, idea or proposal into something real. The environment here exists to turn each person's question into a TEIGEN.
Programs
What is in place to grow you.
TEIGEN Dojo
Hands-on practice in business email, formal Japanese, writing documents, presenting, chairing meetings and dealing with people outside. Daily morning email drills included. Skills that hold up in the working world.
Chances to speak and compete
Forum invitations from election commissions and associations, competition entries, speaking slots. First prize at the Policy Championship and the NHK President's Award both came out of this.
Help with comprehensive-selection applications
University members advise high school members on their application materials, so what you did here counts toward where you go next.
NewsPicks premium membership
Sixty days of premium membership to the business media outlet NewsPicks, so that noticing what is going on becomes a daily habit.
Help with costs
Travel to outreach classes and outside events, and fees for external training, are paid or subsidized by the organization; travel to ordinary meetings is normally your own. It exists so that money is not the reason anyone stops.
Shofukai, our alumni association
A way to stay involved after you leave, as a Legacy Fellow, so that what earlier members know and who they know passes to the next generation.
Honest Note
Second to none
Whatever your age or years with us, each person holds a clear role and responsibility and makes a contribution the team cannot do without — that is TEIGEN JP’s shared phrase. This is not a community you simply drop into. Before you apply, please read our candid account of the responsibilities and the real workload, not only the rewards.
WHAT WE SHAREWhat it says
- Teams are normally five people. There is nobody to hide behind.
- Failure is not held against you. Leaving it alone is
- The unglamorous work is yours too: scheduling, correspondence, minutes, keeping things on track, fixing documents
- It is as good as it gets. It is not easy
- We protect your safety. We do not lower the standard. In busy stretches, three or four meetings a week
BEFORE YOU APPLYRead it, then decide
- What the organization guarantees and what it asks of you, set down side by side
- A five-point self-check to run before you apply
- Anything that worries you can be raised openly at the briefing or the interview
Process
How to apply
Everything from applying to hearing the result happens online. During recruitment you can apply from anywhere in the country.
STEP 1
Apply
Through the form, during the recruitment window. No particular experience or record required.
STEP 2
Online briefing
What the work actually involves, with time to talk to current members.
STEP 3
Online interview
What brought you here, and what interests you. There is no right answer being looked for.
STEP 4
Result
Sent online.
STEP 5
Placement and training
You are placed in the division that fits what interests you and what you are good at, and start after training at the TEIGEN Dojo.
TEIGEN Knowledge
TEIGEN Answers
Bringing an outreach class into a school, starting one where you live, running a student organization. We write down the things we actually ran into and worked out.
For schools and boards of education
- What Is Civic Education? A Primer for Schools and Five Common Pitfalls
- How to bring a civic education outreach class into your school: internal approval, cost and preparation
- Designing a mock election class: what to keep and what to go deeper on, in two periods versus four
- Preparing for a student council election: a mock election for comparing manifestos and choosing between them
- Taking Up Local Issues in Inquiry-Based Study | Design from Theme-Setting to Presentation
- Turning School Cleaning Time into Learning | Designing Cleaning Instruction in Elementary School
- Political neutrality in schools: what a class can do and what it should avoid
For teenagers about to start something
- Looking for somewhere to take part as a teenager | How to choose, and what to do when nobody is recruiting
- Starting a student organization in high school: getting people, work and roles into shape in three months
- How to hold a mock election in your own town: approaching the local authority and the election commission
- Why nobody joins your student organization, or nobody stays: three walls, and how to get past them
For parents and teachers
For local authorities, assemblies and election commissions
For Companies and Foundations
For those requesting a talk or an interview
Frequently asked questions
Is it all right if I don't know much about politics?
Yes. What matters is not how much you know but whether you carry a question about the world. The knowledge comes on its own, through the training and the work. If anything, we most want the people who have not yet found out what they are capable of.
Can high school students join?
Yes. More than half of our members — 53% as of June 2026 — are in high school. The organization is built around their energy, with university members and alumni providing the continuity.
How much time does it take?
Normally one meeting a week, about 60 minutes, mostly online. In busy stretches — the month before an event, say — it can be three or four times a week, in person or online. How heavy it gets depends on the season and on your role, so go in knowing that. Against it, the rules protect your schoolwork: you may miss anything in the week before exams, and no activity may start after 11pm.
Can I join from outside the Tokyo area?
Yes. We work mostly online, and everything from applying to hearing the result happens online. Members currently come from 22 different schools and universities across Tokyo and the three neighboring prefectures.
Does it cost anything?
There is no joining fee and no membership fee. Travel to outreach classes and outside events, and fees for external training, are paid or subsidized by the organization. Travel to ordinary meetings is normally your own. Equipment and materials needed to run an event are paid for by the organization.
Are you recruiting right now?
Recruitment in Tokyo for the fourth cohort, 2026, has closed; the process ran in May 2026. The next round will be announced in our news and on social media — if you would like to hear about it, say so through the contact form. Separately, if you want to start a Mock Ward Mayoral Election or an Osouji-tai where you live, we take those inquiries all year round (thirty minutes, free).