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One top pick has no chance, and another has nothing but potential<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Earlier this month, on September 7, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced that he will be resigning from his position<\/strong>. Really, though, the writing had been on the wall for Ishiba for some time, which explains why research organization Wakamono Research<\/strong> had already been asking Japanese high schoolers who they would want to be Japan\u2019s next prime minister<\/strong>.<\/p>\n 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<\/strong>. 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\u2019s unlikely to return to office, seeing as how he was assassinated while giving a speech in the summer of 2022<\/a>. In defense of those teens who responded to the survey question with Abe\u2019s 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\u2019s widely known that he\u2019s been dead for several years. Still, it\u2019s 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\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n But again, Abe isn\u2019t going to be making a return to Japanese politics, so who\u2019s the teens\u2019 number-two pick? Themselves, as 6.5 percent of survey respondents answered \u201cWho would you want to be the next prime minister?\u201d with \u201cMe.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n When asked for more details, the teens who\u2019s picked themselves to lead Japan explained their reasoning with comments such as:<\/p>\n \u201cNo matter who [out of current politicians] becomes prime minister, Japan won\u2019t get any better.\u201d<\/em> \u25bc Well, Miss Smarty Pants, maybe you\u2019d<\/em> like to try running the country, huh? Oh, what\u2019s that? You would? I see\u2026<\/p>\n However, while this particular mix of idealism and cynicism may indeed be planting the seed for a future political reformer, it\u2019s going to be some time before anyone who\u2019s 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\u2019s number-three pick, with 5.9 percent of responses, is Shinjiro Koizumi<\/strong>. Koizumi is currently the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. That may not be the most glamorous role, but he\u2019s also the son of Junichiro Koizumi, who was prime minister between 2001 and 2006, the second-longest term of the 21st century, behind Abe\u2019s. The elder Koizumi\u2019s administration is also one that\u2019s 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\u2019s not surprising that teens would see him as the current best hope for steering the country\u2026until they\u2019re old enough to take the wheel themselves, anyway.<\/p>\n Source: Wakamono Research<\/a> via Lasisa<\/a> via Yahoo! Japan News<\/a> via Jin<\/a><\/em> 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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2076\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n\u201cI want to be on the front lines of changing Japan.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cThere\u2019s no mileage in relying on the government.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cI don\u2019t think the government is going to do anything to help people.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cI want to create a country where nothing is wasted.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/soranews24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/09\/pm-2.jpg?w=640\")
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\nTop image: Pakutaso<\/a><\/em>
\nInsert image: Pakutaso<\/a><\/em>
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