Japanese Political Party to Install AI as Leader After Founder’s Exit
A Japanese political party has announced plans to appoint an artificial intelligence as its leader, following the resignation of its founder after a poor electoral outing.
The Path to Rebirth party, created in January by Shinji Ishimaru, a former mayor of a small city in western Japan, had initially gained attention when Ishimaru came second in the 2024 Tokyo gubernatorial election through a strong online campaign. However, after failing to secure any seats in this year’s upper house elections, Ishimaru stepped down.
On Tuesday, party representatives confirmed that the new leader will be an AI system. Koki Okumura, a 25-year-old doctoral student in AI research at Kyoto University, explained that while he will nominally serve as leader, the AI will handle decisions such as resource allocation among members.
Okumura stressed that the AI will not dictate party members’ individual political activities but will provide strategic guidance. Details of the AI’s development and implementation timeline remain under discussion.
Despite its unconventional approach and media attention, the Path to Rebirth has struggled electorally, losing all 42 candidates in the June Tokyo assembly election and all 10 candidates in the July upper house race.
