When the mayor of Shijonawate, a small city in Osaka Prefecture, decided against running for a third term in the Dec. 22 election, he had an idea.
In an unprecedented move, the 36-year-old incumbent, Shuhei Azuma, decided to allow candidates from across the nation to apply to potentially become his successor through an application form on the job searching platform En Japan.
“By working with a company like En Japan, who excel in supporting career changes, I thought that we could reach out to as many people as possible and convey to them that being a mayor is a career that one can actually pursue,” he said.
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