Mayor of Yachiyo City, Tomonori Hattori

2026.01.20

The challenge of making Yachiyo a town where people want to live, visit and work

■ Profile
Born in Yachiyo City, Chiba Prefecture in 1957. Graduated from the Faculty of Education at Yamanashi University.
After meeting his mentor during his university days, he became interested in local government and aspired to become a politician.
In 1982, he ran for election to the Yachiyo City Council for the first time and was elected.
He served as a member of the Yachiyo City Council for six terms, a period of 20 years, and as a member of the Chiba Prefectural Assembly for three terms, a period of 10 years.
He has been in his current position since May 2017.

Mayor Tomonori Hattori has been working as a school guard since his university days, after meeting his former teacher and being defeated once in the election. He spoke about his challenges to ensure Yachiyo remains a "city of choice" even in an era of population decline, and his thoughts on the young people who will lead the next generation.

■ A youth dedicated to club activities and the university teacher who paved the way for politics

I was born and raised in Yachiyo City. In high school, I devoted myself to volleyball, and while everyone around me was retiring to study for entrance exams, I continued with the club until the end, determined to repeat a year. As expected, I ended up repeating a year, but when I met up with my friends at prep school who had quit the club early, I remember thinking, "I should have continued playing volleyball." Perhaps it was at this time that I developed the attitude of seeing things through to the end, something I have decided to do.
As I loved Mount Fuji, I went to Yamanashi University. Initially, I wanted to become a lawyer, but there I met my mentor, Professor Nomura, who would change my life.
In addition to his classes, Professor Nomura would take me out to dinner and accompany me to city council meetings and Yamanashi Prefectural Government meetings. Experiencing the political scene in action, I began to feel that "politics is more interesting than being a lawyer." My encounter with Professor Nomura was a crucial turning point in my life.

■From his start as a politician to becoming mayor

My political career began when I returned to my hometown and ran for city council. I consider myself a "local politician." From the beginning, I had no intention of aiming for national politics, but rather wanted to work closer to the citizens, solving their everyday problems.
My motivation for aiming to become mayor came from my time as a city council member. While serving three or four terms as a city council member, I began to strongly believe that "the pinnacle of local politics is the mayor." From then on, I began to walk the path with the determination that "I must eventually aim to become mayor."
After that, I served as a prefectural assembly member for 10 years. At the time, I felt it was a bit of a detour, but those 10 years of experience have become a huge asset in my current role as mayor. I was able to build a deep relationship of trust with the staff at Chiba Prefectural Government, and that has undoubtedly been useful in running city government today.

■ School guard who started during the unsuccessful period

During the four years I was a ronin, I started working as a "school guard" together with the youth division of my support group.
The first time I stood up to wave the flag after the mayoral election, a boy asked me, "Did you win the election?" When I answered, "Yes, I did," he replied, "Congratulations!" I was honestly very happy at the time. I thought that this boy knew that I had run for mayor.
There are other things I notice only by being on the scene, such as the dangers of irregular intersections without traffic lights and the aging of our volunteers. Even now that I'm mayor, I've decided to continue working as a school guard as long as my dynamic vision is still good.

■Strategies to make Yachiyo a "city of choice" in an era of population decline

We are currently facing the challenges of a declining population and an aging society. In light of these challenges, I am promoting the goal of making Yachiyo a city people choose to live in.
Yachiyo is located halfway between Narita and Haneda airports, and has excellent potential with excellent rail access. We need to leverage this strength to increase its appeal as a place to work, not just a commuter town. It is essential to attract new companies and factories and increase the daytime population, with many people commuting from outside the city.
Another thing I want to emphasize is the perspective of interaction. When I was a member of the Chiba Prefectural Assembly, I worked to create a system that would encourage people to "first visit." I wanted people to visit once, perhaps for tourism, and then return as repeat visitors a second or third time. As they experience the good things about Yachiyo, they will want to live here. I believe that this flow, which connects tourism and interaction to relocation, is a perspective that is truly needed in Yachiyo today.
At the same time, child-rearing support is a top priority. Aiming to eliminate waiting lists for childcare, we have worked to improve small-scale childcare facilities and have promoted the development of child-rearing support facilities such as "Harmonia," which relocate and consolidate facilities that were located in different locations. I believe it is important to create jobs and create an environment in which young people want to live.

■ Connecting educational sites and children who will lead the future through trust

When it comes to education, my style is to trust and leave it to the teachers and superintendent of education. However, we all share the same desire to "take care of the children."
There was a delightful episode that made me realize that children are taking the initiative in thinking about their town, even more so than this. At a "Children's Summit" hosted by the Board of Education, the first theme chosen by junior high school students was "disaster prevention."
When I asked the summit chairman why, I was very surprised to hear, "Yachiyo is a bedroom community, so fathers, and in some cases mothers, are not in Yachiyo during the day. In that case, if we middle school students don't work hard, we won't have anyone to rely on. That's why we have to respond to the disaster ourselves."
As a city, we are primarily working to increase the daytime population by attracting new businesses and establishing a system where adults can protect the city. However, it was a pleasant surprise to me to see the children understand the structure of the city, and step up with a sense of urgency, realizing that "we have to do it ourselves." I was truly amazed at the high aspirations of today's children.

■Message to university students

University is a time when you go from being forced to study to being able to choose what you want to do. If you choose a path that you want to do, it will be a lifelong asset. I believe that university is a place that values autonomy, so I hope you will do your best to pursue what you want to do, not just in academics.

Interview with Student Newspaper Online on December 16, 2025 by Shinoda Hinano, a second-year student at Tokyo Kasei University

Musashino University 1st year Ichikawa Ren / Tokyo Kasei University 2nd year Shinoda Hinano / Hosei University 4th year Saeki Sakura / Tokyo Woman's Christian University 2nd year Ukita Risa / Hosei University 4th year Shimada Daiki