With the first stage of Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's Ishin Seiji Juku school for aspiring politicians concluding Saturday, the 2,000 students who entered in March will be whittled down to between 800 and 1,000 by the end of June.
From there, they begin up to six months of preparation for running in the next Lower House election.
The students, half of whom are in their 20s and 30s, are overwhelmingly male and largely from the Kansai region and Tokyo. They've attended weekly seminars in Osaka to hear, and discuss, lectures on local government reform, finance, social welfare services and Japan's role on the international stage.