After Tokyo election bid, AI engineer Takahiro Anno to run in Upper House race
Artificial intelligence engineer Takahiro Anno, who unsuccessfully ran in last year's Tokyo gubernatorial race, has announced he will run in the Upper House election this summer as president of Team Mirai, his newly founded technocratic party.
'As was the case during my run for Tokyo governor last summer, I don't have an organized bloc of voters or any backing. It's a so-called baseless, fameless and fundless challenge, but I think there's a good chance of winning,' Anno, 34, told reporters Thursday at a news conference in Tokyo.
Team Mirai, which translates to 'team future,' is coordinating the endorsement of at least 10 rookie candidates — seven in constituencies and three, including Anno, in the national proportional representation bloc — who work in engineering and other areas of technology, as well as 'the front lines of society,' Anno said.
The party envisions 'a Japan where technology leaves no one behind' and pledges to establish a collective of engineers in the nation's political center of Nagatacho by using state subsidies, which are eligible to parties with at least five sitting lawmakers or 2% of votes secured in the previous parliamentary election.
Anno, an engineering graduate from the University of Tokyo, worked at Boston Consulting Group before venturing into AI startups.
He made his political debut in last July's Tokyo governor election , placing 5th with 154,638 votes, or 2.3% of the overall turnout — more than 40 percentage points behind victor Yuriko Koike.
Touting 'digital democracy,' Anno's election campaign was steeped in AI. He used it to incorporate public opinion into his manifesto, which went on to win the 19th Manifesto Awards Grand Prize. He even launched an AI avatar to answer voters' questions 24/7.
After losing his bid for Tokyo governor, Anno became an adviser at GovTech Tokyo, an organization affiliated with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and appeared in parliament as an expert witness to offer testimony on the AI promotion bill , which passed the Lower House on April 24.
The focus of this summer's Upper House election will be on whether the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito coalition can secure a majority, unlike its disastrous showing in the Lower House election last October.
As an external adviser, Anno said there was only so much he could achieve in bridging technology and politics. His only option was to become a lawmaker, he said. 'To change Nagatacho, you need to be in Nagatacho,' he said.
In addition to Team Mirai, another new party named Saisei no Michi (The Path to Rebirth) founded by Shinji Ishimaru, who was runner-up in last year's Tokyo gubernatorial race, is also endorsing 10 rookie candidates in this summer's Upper House election.
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