A fledgling Japanese political movement has announced plans to put artificial intelligence at its helm after its founder stepped down in the wake of poor election results.
The Path to Rebirth party, created in January by Shinji Ishimaru, a former mayor from western Japan, has no fixed manifesto, instead allowing its members to pursue their own political priorities.
Ishimaru had surprised many when he finished second in the 2024 Tokyo gubernatorial race, largely propelled by a savvy online campaign.
But following the party’s failure to secure a single seat in the recent upper house elections, he resigned.
“The new leader will be AI,” said Koki Okumura, a Kyoto University doctoral student specializing in artificial intelligence, who introduced himself as the assistant to the digital leader during a press conference.
Okumura, 25, who narrowly won the leadership contest to replace Ishimaru, will serve as the party’s official head in name, while the AI is expected to handle internal decisions, particularly on how to distribute resources among candidates.
“The AI will not dictate political activities of party members but will focus on decisions such as distribution of its resources among members, for example,” he explained.
Despite generating buzz in the media, the party has yet to find success at the ballot box. All 42 candidates it fielded in the Tokyo assembly elections in June were defeated, as were the 10 contenders who ran in July’s upper house vote.
