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Japanese teenagers have impossible, inspiring picks for who they want next prime minister to be

Casey Baseel Sep 14, 2025
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One top pick has no chance, and another has nothing but potential.

Earlier this month, on September 7, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced that he will be resigning from his position. Really, though, the writing had been on the wall for Ishiba for some time, which explains why research organization Wakamono Research had already been asking Japanese high schoolers who they would want to be Japan’s next prime minister.

A total of 353 responses were collected from high school students from across Japan between July 22 and August 4, and when the responses were tallied, the top pick was a bit of a head-scratcher: Shinzo Abe. While Shinzo Abe has plenty of experience in the world of politics, serving as prime minister from December of 2012 to September of 2020, he’s unlikely to return to office, seeing as how he was assassinated while giving a speech in the summer of 2022. In defense of those teens who responded to the survey question with Abe’s name, they seem to have been taking the question of who they would want to be the next prime minister in the most theoretical sense, since it’s widely known that he’s been dead for several years. Still, it’s not hard to see why some teens would long for a return to the Abe days. His term of seven years and 266 consecutive days as prime minster is the longest in modern Japanese politics (since 2000, only one other prime minster, who we’ll talk about a little more later on, has held office for more than three years), and the period of unusual political stability preceded the upheavals of the coronavirus pandemic peak and the rapid inflation, rice shortages, and other economic woes that average Japanese households have been struggling with since.

But again, Abe isn’t going to be making a return to Japanese politics, so who’s the teens’ number-two pick? Themselves, as 6.5 percent of survey respondents answered “Who would you want to be the next prime minister?” with “Me.”

When asked for more details, the teens who’s picked themselves to lead Japan explained their reasoning with comments such as:

“No matter who [out of current politicians] becomes prime minister, Japan won’t get any better.”
“I want to be on the front lines of changing Japan.”
“There’s no mileage in relying on the government.”
“I don’t think the government is going to do anything to help people.”
“I want to create a country where nothing is wasted.”

▼ Well, Miss Smarty Pants, maybe you’d like to try running the country, huh? Oh, what’s that? You would? I see…

However, while this particular mix of idealism and cynicism may indeed be planting the seed for a future political reformer, it’s going to be some time before anyone who’s in high school now can ascend to the upper echelons of Japanese politics. With it too late for Abe to change Japan and still too early for teens to handle that task, the survey’s number-three pick, with 5.9 percent of responses, is Shinjiro Koizumi. Koizumi is currently the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. That may not be the most glamorous role, but he’s also the son of Junichiro Koizumi, who was prime minister between 2001 and 2006, the second-longest term of the 21st century, behind Abe’s. The elder Koizumi’s administration is also one that’s often looked back on in a fairly positive light, so between his familial connection, name recognition, and youth (Shinjiro is 44, 24 years younger than the outgoing Ishiba), it’s not surprising that teens would see him as the current best hope for steering the country…until they’re old enough to take the wheel themselves, anyway.

Source: Wakamono Research via Lasisa via Yahoo! Japan News via Jin
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