Interview videos have been uploaded in which young people, including university students from Nishinomiya, interviewed the three candidates running in the Nishinomiya mayoral election held on March 27.
Check them out below↓
Believe it or not, this project was a collaboration involving Wakamono Ouen Bank (Youth Support Bank), GPS Runner and Nishitsuu writer Sensee, the Nishinomiya app CiPPo, and even Nishitsuu was quietly involved behind the scenes.
The interviewers included university students from Kwansei Gakuin University, Mukogawa Women’s University, and Konan University, a 17-year-old high school student, and 35-year-old Sensee from Nishitsuu who barely qualifies as “young.” (I accidentally wrote Sensee’s age as 30. He’s not lying about his age, I swear.)
Videos for Each Candidate
Here are the interview videos with the three candidates running in the Nishinomiya mayoral election. Each interview was conducted within a 30-minute time limit.
Below is a list of the questions that were asked. Click on a question to jump directly to that moment in the video — super convenient!
Masakazu Yoshioka
Here are the questions that were asked:
- If you were a university student in your 20s, what would you want to say to Nishinomiya City or the mayoral candidates?
- What can you promise young people within your 4-year term?
- What kind of person do you want your own children and the children of Nishinomiya to become?
- What is your unique strength that no one else has?
- Why does it have to be the mayor’s position?
- What do you think about the other candidates?
- About support for communities and events on the soft infrastructure side
- How can we increase voter turnout among young people?
- What do you like about Nishinomiya?
- What do you keep in mind when giving speeches or speaking in public?
- What do you do when campaigning gets tough?
Toshiro Ishii
- If you were a university student in your 20s, what would you want to say to Nishinomiya City or the mayoral candidates?
- What can you promise young people within your 4-year term?
- Why does it have to be the mayor’s position?
- What makes a good city? What’s the ultimate goal?
- How will you handle disability welfare services going forward?
- How can we increase voter turnout among young people?
- Why does Nishinomiya City have income restrictions on its children’s medical expense subsidy program?
- About your personal principles when deciding and prioritizing policies
- What is your unique strength that absolutely no one else can match?
- About the idea of providing menstrual products in schools
Makoto Masuyama
- If you were a university student in your 20s, what would you want to say to Nishinomiya City or the mayoral candidates?
- What can you promise young people within your 4-year term?
- Why does it have to be the mayor’s position?
- What kind of person do you want your own children and the children of Nishinomiya to become?
- What do you do when you feel discouraged by criticism or anti-fans?
- About differing opinions
- About creating an exciting sports environment for everyone
- Why did you want to become a company president as your childhood dream?
- How can we increase voter turnout among young people?
- When was a moment you felt truly happy?
- What’s an occupational hazard of being a politician?
- What should we be careful about in an era of so much conflicting information?
- Why do you think higher education is important?
- What good things will happen for young people if they vote for you?
- What kind of mayor do you want to be?
- What kind of team do you want to build?
- What do you like about Nishinomiya?
The number of questions varies by candidate, but each interview was conducted within the same 30-minute timeframe.
There were moments when the candidates were caught off guard by the fresh questions from university and high school students, as well as some sharp questions.
Come to think of it, there were also recently the Nishinomiya Junior Chamber of Commerce public debate and the Kobe Shimbun online debate.
In Closing
The mayoral election kicks off on February 27, and for those thinking “I don’t know who to vote for,” these videos should be quite helpful as a reference. It’s a fascinating project that gives you a glimpse into each candidate’s personality and way of thinking. If there’s a particular question that catches your interest, definitely give it a watch. I’ll add direct links to each question in the conversation later. Direct links to questions have been added!
