In her new job of pushing policies to revive a town suffering from an aging population and earthquake damage, Haruka Kuwahara will have to take time off to attend classes.
At age 25, Kuwahara, a second-year graduate student at the University of Tokyo, was elected to the municipal assembly of Tsunan-machi, Niigata Prefecture, on Oct. 30.
The independent must return to Tokyo once a week for her university studies in public policies, but she says she is determined to improve the people's lives in Tsunan-machi, a snowy town of about 11,000 people near the border with Nagano Prefecture.
"I am feeling like I am marrying my hometown," Kuwahara said.
It wasn't the enormous March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake that inspired her to pursue a political career, but an earthquake the following day that ravaged Tsunan-machi and northern Nagano Prefecture.
The magnitude-6.7 quake killed three people, created numerous cracks in roads and agricultural fields and caused houses to tilt.
Its intensity on the Japanese seismic scale of 7 reached a lower 6 in Tsunan-machi, which sits next to Sakae, Nagano Prefecture, where the epicenter was located.
Kuwahara was born the eldest girl in a family that runs a farm and other business in the town.
After Kuwahara returned home to see her family and witness the quake damage up close, the graduate student decided to help in the reconstruction of her hometown, which had already been struggling with strained finances, low employment rates and a graying society.
Since her grandfather on her mother's side was an ardent supporter of former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka, Kuwahara grew up listening to stories about the charismatic leader.
When Kuwahara was a student at Waseda University, she also studied in the United States, where she saw many young people join Barack Obama's successful campaign for the U.S. presidency in 2008.
This inspired her to learn more about politics, leading her to study public policies at the University of Tokyo.
Before the Tsunan-machi asembly election, Kuwahara was offered a job at a local fish market, but she decided instead to prepare for her political career.
In August, when she turned 25, the mininum age for candidates in Japanese elections, she left Tokyo to start her campaign with the support of her classmates from junior high school. They help her deliver street speeches and spread the word about her candidacy.
In the assembly election, 17 candidates ran for 16 seats. Kuwahara's vote count doubled the number of the candidate who finished second.
"I want to reform our assembly first," Kuwahara said.