Mayor of Zama City, Sato Mito

2026.07.24

If we raise our voices, our town will change.

Mayor of Zama City: Mito Sato

■ Profile
Graduated from Chiba Prefectural Nagasa High School in 1988.
Dropped out of the Department of Japanese Literature, Faculty of Letters, Hosei University in 1991.
2004: Member of the Zama City Council (first elected)
2008: Elected to the Zama City Council (for a fourth term)
2012: Elected to the Zama City Council (for a fourth term)
2016: Elected to the Zama City Council (for a fourth term)
Mayor of Zama City (first election) in 2020
Mayor of Zama City in 2024 (elected for a second term)

Becoming a mother at the age of 21, she transitioned from civic activism to the world of politics. Her husband's illness prompted her to become a council member, and after four terms, she became the first female mayor of Zama City, Kanagawa Prefecture. What kind of future does Mayor Sato Mito envision for a "livable Zama," as she continues to implement citizen-centered reforms such as promoting DX and building a circular economy?

■The resolve to become a mother

During my university years, I attended evening classes at Hosei University, where tuition fees were relatively low, because I wanted to earn my own tuition and become independent.
At the time, I aspired to become a Japanese language teacher, so while studying in the Japanese Literature department, I worked part-time at a publishing company during the day, thinking, "This way I can study languages at the same time."
Amidst all of that, I married my husband, whom I met while I was in university. Since my husband was the eldest son, I unconsciously felt that "as the wife of the eldest son, I must give birth to a legitimate son as soon as possible," so I gave birth to my first child at the age of 21, and then had three more children. There were a lot of things going on during that time, such as starting to live with my in-laws and dropping out of university. I was busy trying to manage household matters, and before I knew it, time had flown by.

■ The power to take action

When I was raising my third child, a plan to build a thermal power plant emerged in Komatsubara, the area where we were living at the time. It was a mixed residential and industrial area, and with new houses being built right in front of our house, we thought, "This is just not right," so I started a protest movement with my neighbors as a community activity, and that was my first encounter with politics.
When the neighborhood association decided to take up this issue, all the officers at the time resigned, saying, "We didn't become officers to oppose this." I was at a loss, but my husband said, "Then I'll do it," and took on the role of neighborhood association chairman, and from then on we worked together as a team. In the end, the petition we submitted to the prefectural assembly was passed unanimously, and the company abandoned the plan and withdrew it completely.
During that movement, I realized for the first time that "things will move forward if you don't speak up," something I knew nothing about, including the City Planning Act and the issue of groundwater in Zama. That was the starting point of my political career. My husband became a city council member, and I supported him by writing reports and updating the website and blog. However, at the end of his first term, my husband was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given three months to live. Although all preparations for his second term election were complete, I made the bold decision to run in his place. After that, as I served four terms as a city council member, my desire to make a bigger impact on city politics grew stronger. In 2020, I resigned from my position as a council member to run for mayor and was elected as the first female mayor of Zama City. I am currently serving my second term.

■ Promoting DX (Digital Transformation) to Aim for a "Non-Visit Service Counter"

During my time as a city council member, my greatest focus was on "community activities." I worked in cooperation with citizen activity groups and businesses to address local issues, acting as a bridge between them and the administration.
As mayor, I believe that information dissemination and collection are extremely important in order to further advance these initiatives. Therefore, I have revamped the city's website and launched the city's official LINE account to make information dissemination smoother. I have also formulated a DX promotion plan. In particular, the city's official LINE account has been registered by over 13 people out of Zama's 11 residents.
In terms of two-way connections with citizens, we have introduced a system that uses LINE to collect "citizen voices" and allows citizens to report road damage and other issues with photos. We are steadily advancing the digitalization of procedures with the aim of becoming a "non-visit-in-office service counter," such as being able to complete everything from applying for bulky waste collection to payment entirely on LINE.
Furthermore, the introduction of DX (digital transformation) into garbage trucks is another initiative that Zama City is pioneering. They have installed a system called "WOOMS," developed by Odakyu Electric Railway, in all their trucks, allowing for real-time sharing of collection status via tablets. This has reduced the number of trips to the incineration facility, which is about 40 minutes away, resulting in a significant improvement in efficiency. A system has also been established to collect and recycle pruned branches and vegetation on a separate route from combustible waste. The city is also seriously working towards building a circular economy where citizens compost their food waste, the city collects the compost, and local farmers use it, allowing the harvested vegetables to be used in elementary school lunches and purchased by citizens.

■ The charm of Zama and its abundant nature

In terms of childcare support, we have focused on eliminating waiting lists for daycare centers, but our next challenge is to improve after-school care. We will continue our efforts to make Zama a city where people feel that it is easy to raise children. In addition, in order to keep young people who tend to move out of the city once they start working, we would like to strengthen cooperation with local companies and promote the creation of a system that leads to local employment.
I feel that the charms of Zama City haven't been fully conveyed yet. Supermarkets, convenience stores, and drugstores are within a 10-minute walk in almost every part of the city, and it has excellent access to multiple train lines, including the Odakyu Line, JR, Sotetsu Line, and Den-en-toshi Line. Moreover, it is a city rich in greenery, has delicious water, and has a deep history of being inhabited by people since the Paleolithic era. The abundance of greenery has received high marks in citizen satisfaction surveys, and it is one of the points that I can confidently recommend.
I believe that a crucial theme going forward is to more widely communicate the appeal of this area, where "convenience of daily life" and "richness of nature and history" coexist.

■Message to university students

I want you to keep challenging yourselves above all else. I feel that many young people today are so afraid of failure that they hesitate to speak up or take action. But there is no success without failure. Don't dwell on your failures, but instead view them all as positive experiences for growth and keep challenging yourselves with a positive attitude.

Interviewed by Student Newspaper Online on July 16, 2026 by Chiharu Yamada, second-year student at the University of Information, Management and Innovation