Photo/Illutration Ryosuke Takashima, mayor of Ashiya in Hyogo Prefecture, was chosen for the “Time 100 Next 2025” list. (Masaaki Takebe)

ASHIYA, Hyogo Prefecture—Time magazine has named Ryosuke Takashima, Japan’s youngest-ever mayor, to its “Time 100 Next 2025” list that spotlights generation-molding figures from around the world.

“I am so grateful for the attention that people are giving me both in Japan and abroad,” the now-28-year-old mayor of the western city told reporters on Oct. 1. “This is great encouragement for our city as well.”

The biweekly American news magazine referenced Takashima’s measures, such as more personalized education for students at school, abolition of congratulatory cash benefits for senior citizens and cost-effective climate action.

Time also lauded how the mayor has “emphasized transparency, holding open dialogues so that constituents feel heard and understand the changes being made.”

Takashima went on to tell reporters he is happy that Time mentioned his top-priority issue of personalized education, which he calls “just-right learning,” before his other policies.

However, he did comment that he is not quite happy with the way the magazine said he has “prioritized reforms that benefit younger generations” through those measures.

“That’s not my true intention,” Takashima said. “I explained (to Time representatives) that what I have been doing isn’t about replacing budgets for elderly people with budgets for children, but that likely didn’t get through properly.”

Time described him as “breaking the mold” in “Japan, a country shaped by its gerontocratic politics.”

The mayor said: “I am probably not so much ‘breaking the mold’ as the magazine approved of the way Ashiya residents chose to entrust their municipal administration to a 26-year-old.”

Born in Minoh, Osaka Prefecture, Takashima attended the University of Tokyo and graduated from Harvard University in the United States before becoming mayor of Ashiya in 2023 at 26 years and two months of age.

City government officials said magazine representatives reached out in mid-September to share that their mayor was a nominee, and Takashima answered Time’s questions in writing.

Ashiya officials learned he officially made this year’s list on Sept. 20.

The magazine touts its annual selection as one of “people from around the world who are shaping the future and defining the next generation of leadership.” Those chosen include politicians, artists, athletes and individuals representing a number of fields.

This latest list includes White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who is part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.

“I am feeling that democracy is facing a crisis,” Mayor Takashima said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, in touching on his selection. “I wish to believe there is surely a certain message in the way the head of this local government has been selected.”

He told reporters: “Fake information is all the rage and fanning division across the world. We are facing the question of how we could all defend democracy. We are approaching a crucial juncture.”

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