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Case Study | Citizenship education
Mock Ward Mayoral Election
To the other side of the ballot box.
Our core hands-on citizenship education program, held three times in Adachi City since 2023. Since 2025 it has been co-hosted with the Adachi Election Administration Commission, and the Mayor of Adachi City attended the third edition in 2026.
- Held
- November 2023, March 2025, March 2026 (three editions)
- Venue
- Adachi Ward Office (special committee room / main hall and assembly chamber)
- Co-hosting & sponsorship
- Co-hosted with the Adachi Election Administration Commission (since 2025) / supported by the Board of Education / in cooperation with the Ward Assembly
- Attended by
- Mayor of Adachi City Yayoi Kondo, at the third edition (2026)
- Records
- Featured in the Adachi Ward Assembly newsletter three years running (issues 321, 328 and 334) See the assembly newsletter ↗
Why does citizenship education
stop at practicing how to vote?
02 The Reality | Where we stand
Turnout is not the whole problem.
In the 2022 House of Councillors election, turnout among 18- and 19-year-olds was 34.49% (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications). But what we see on the ground is not a problem of low numbers. Most citizenship education in schools stops at explaining the electoral system and holding a mock vote. Students almost never get near the substance of democracy — how a policy is born, how it is challenged, and how it is decided.
Under Japan's Public Offices Election Act, campaigning by anyone under 18 is restricted, which leaves teenagers almost no legitimate way to engage with politics as builders rather than bystanders. When election day is the only form of participation on offer, young people get used to sitting in the audience.
03 Why Now | Why this matters now
The Diet has begun debating whether 18-year-olds can be the ones chosen.
Since 2016, the voting age in Japan has been 18. The age at which you can stand for office, however, is still 25 for the House of Representatives, local assemblies and municipal mayors, and 30 for the House of Councillors and prefectural governors. In 2026, lowering that candidacy age became a serious topic of debate in the Diet.
A generation that has only learned how to vote may soon be old enough to run. What it will need then is to have already been through the candidate's side of the process — writing a policy, making the case in public, and being questioned on it.
| Point of comparison | Citizenship education that teaches voting | The Mock Ward Mayoral Election, where you run |
|---|---|---|
| Your role | The one choosing | The one chosen, and the one choosing |
| Policy | Compare the policies of candidates prepared for you | Write the policy yourselves (by researching local issues) |
| What you are asked | Whom to vote for | How your own policy holds up to questioning (from other participants and sitting assembly members) |
| Preparing for candidacy at 18 | Learn how voting works | Go through the whole process (policy, election bulletin, speech, vote) |
- June 2015An amendment to the Public Offices Election Act lowered the voting age to 18 (first applied in the July 2016 House of Councillors election)
- July 2026A bill to lower the candidacy age to 18 (23 for the House of Councillors and for governors and mayors) was submitted to the House of Councillors
- As of October 2026The bill has not been passed. Debate in the Diet continues
04 Our Insight | The hypothesis
Give teenagers the experience of running for office and writing policy — not just voting — and they stop being spectators.
This is not a voting drill. Participants analyze real local issues, draft policy, write their own campaign bulletins and speeches, and stand as candidates. They interrogate other people's policies and have their own interrogated in return. Only in that exchange does politics become something you can speak about in your own words.
We also built in a method of our own, Paradigm Change Time, in which each policy is re-examined from a different position — another generation, another job, another set of circumstances. Deliberation only counts when you have had to doubt your own conclusion.
05 The Experience | How the day is designed
What a participant actually does.
06 The Result | What came of it
The numbers, and what they mean.
In its own published materials, the Adachi Ward Assembly lists, among the assembly reforms it carried out in 2023 under “resident participation”, holding the student-run Mock Ward Mayoral Election and working to advance civic education. (Waseda University Manifesto Institute, Local Assembly Reform Survey 2023 — the assembly placed 58th of 1,562 nationwide and 2nd among Tokyo's special wards.)an assembly gains one more piece of work it can publish as a record of resident participation.See our track record →
- As the top team of the 1st 26 November 2023, special committee room, Adachi Ward OfficeSupported by Adachi City, the Adachi City Board of Education and othersEvent report →
- 2nd20 March 2025, main hall and assembly chamber, Adachi Ward OfficeCo-hosted with the Election Administration Commission / supported by the Board of Education / in cooperation with the Ward AssemblyEvent report →Sankei Shimbun coverage ↗
- 3rdMarch 2026, main hall and assembly chamber, Adachi Ward OfficeCo-hosted with the Election Administration Commission / supported by the Board of Education. Attended by Mayor Yayoi KondoEvent report →The winning team's visit to the mayor →
The Adachi Ward Assembly newsletter has featured the Mock Ward Mayoral Election three years running (issues 321, 328 and 334).See the assembly newsletter ↗
"Use this opportunity to keep going."
We are also invited elsewhere to present it as a case study.
- 2026Assembly members' study session, Yashio, SaitamaPresented the Mock Ward Mayoral Election as a leading example of teen political participation at "Opening up the future of the assembly"→
- 2025Summer Conference 2025 (organized by the Junior Chamber International Japan)On a panel with Ashiya Mayor Ryosuke Takashima, presented the Mock Ward Mayoral Election and other opportunities we have created→
Scenes
The room, not just the record.
A question becomes an argument, becomes a policy, becomes a speech. One day, in six scenes. Select a photograph to open it.
Every photograph from the day, in no particular order
Survey | Post-event questionnaire
What participants said had changed.
"It felt like a real election. It was real."
"Turning what we had argued about into an actual policy draft — putting a thought into a shape — felt like an achievement."
"I had no interest in local government. After that day I wanted to follow the news. I'd like them to come and teach at my school too."
"I learned to speak up without being asked. I made new friends, too."
"I was glad to vote for the first time. By the time we presented, our group had become a team."
07 Voices | From the people involved
The participant becomes the organizer.
"A year after taking part in the Mock Ward Mayoral Election as a participant, I was the one running it. My friends pushed me forward, and I threw myself at entrance exams and the event at the same time. Those months made me who I am, and they gave me real confidence."
08 Behind the Project | Backstage
What it takes to borrow a real chamber of government.
This program rests on coordination with four separate public bodies: the ward office, the assembly, the board of education and the election administration commission. Securing the venue, borrowing equipment, asking legislators to take part, publicity, running the day — students handle all of it. Which means the quality of a written request, whether a deadline is met, and how we conduct ourselves on the day are all tests of whether this organization can be trusted.
We have failed and revised repeatedly. The first attempt was a trial with about 30 people. Since then we have moved into the city hall auditorium, brought in more assembly members, and introduced Paradigm Change Time — the design changes with every edition. We are now standardizing the operating manual so the model can be reproduced elsewhere.
Teenagers run the floor.
Receiving candidates, securing the chamber, carrying the ballot boxes, running the program — every part of the day is built by organizers the same age as the participants.
