Tokyo University ain’t what it used to be?

If Shinzo Abe wins the election later this month, it will add yet another politician to the list of Prime Ministers who have not graduated from Tokyo University. From Mainichi Shinbun:

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, who is expected to succeed Junichiro Koizumi as prime minister, will be the eighth consecutive premier who is not a Tokyo University graduate.

Koizumi is the 27th prime minister of Japan since the end of World War II. Ten of the premiers graduated from the prestigious University of Tokyo, followed by five Waseda University graduates.

Many postwar prime ministers who graduated from the University of Tokyo entered politics after serving as bureaucrats at government ministries, which often hire staff from national universities such as Tokyo University.

Observers say that the decline of bureaucrats as Diet member candidates and the rise of second- or third-generation politicians are creating the current political landscape, where many legislators are graduates of private universities. Since Morihiro Hosokawa, five of seven prime ministers are second- or third-generation politicians.

So basically, the main question for determining future Prime Ministers is not “Did you graduate from Tokyo University?”, but instead “Who’s your daddy?”