Goda: I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel puzzled about that. The futures MEXT and METI describe actually overlap, so I was looking forward to this discussion, hoping to deepen mutual understanding.

This might be off track, but I heard you’ve been to Hiroshima to support areas affected by heavy rain in western Japan, right?

Asano: Yes. It was only for eight days, but I was reminded that disaster-hit areas are at the forefront of social issues that need to be addressed. What matters there is the ability to judge instantly where and what kind of support is necessary, and the mobility to act as a team. Demand for bento surpassed the supply, so we asked local students to help increase production. Within an hour, about 100 of them had rushed to the site. I was really moved by this. It’s precisely the implementation of hands-on, project-based learning in practice.

At the same time, I felt it’s essential to create a social climate accepting of such an effort.

Goda: Amid changing situations, adults needing to prompt and push children to think about their priorities and actions, as well as to be proactive, is education in a broader sense.

The drastic progress of AI requires children, more than ever, to exercise human potential regarding things only they can do. We feel the necessity to reform the way of learning; not only lectures across the board altogether, but also collaborations and studying with different grades of students, as well as in different groups, should be valued.

Asano: As far as we see in the new curriculum guideline that features an educational approach of proactive, dialogue-based and engaging learning (active learning) through discussions and presentations, I can say MEXT’s awareness of the issues is of the same vein as our own.

Education now on next stage

Goda: About 20 years have passed since MEXT came up with the “relaxed education” policy that placed emphasis on learning and experience-based activities to hone thinking power, but society has drastically changed since then. AI’s victory over the world champion of the board game go is a symbolic event that represents this change. I consider it a turning point for society to clearly anticipate the future.

AI can easily surpass human intelligence in a field with a definitive structure and an abundance of data. Through witnessing such a phenomenon, many people have come to realize the necessity of collaborating with others and autonomous learning through thorough thinking.

Of course, it’s a given fact to steadily acquire fundamental academic skills. The new curriculum guideline after 20 years shows Japanese education is about to enter the next phase. (Note: The curriculum is to be implemented from the 2020 academic year at elementary schools and from the 2021 academic year at junior high schools.)

Asano: Over the past six months, both ministries promoted discussions; with MEXT at the “Round Table Conference with the Minister on nurturing individual talent toward Society 5.0” and METI at the “Study Group for Learning Innovation — ‘Future Classroom’ and EdTech” (educational technology). What we wanted to emphasize the most was the importance of nurturing skills to creatively seek out tasks and solve them. Moreover, it’s an attitude to rise up to tasks, crossing over to disciplines different from one’s own, and the tenacity to push through for a touchdown after struggling in different ways, mud and all. These abilities cannot be acquired overnight; I think education from early childhood is essential. That’s why we at METI decided to also work for the sake of education.

In the transformation of learning styles, schools can offer study content tailored to a student’s depth of understanding and progress through utilization of information technology. Additionally, if the use of AI could streamline the acquisition of basic knowledge, it would create spare time to allocate for creative learning hours. To what extent could these educational innovations be accepted?

Goda: Under the decentralized educational administration, there are many things that a school and an education board can do. Of course, relevant parties engaging in education, including MEXT, need to transform their mindset and culture to match the challenge oriented. At the same time, we all obviously have to continue to elaborate how the educational system should be, as needed.

Teachers as producers

Goda: Regarding individualized and optimized learning, I actually have something I’m worried about right now from a perspective that what’s important, above all, is whether such education is provided fairly.

It’s a sentiment shared by teachers at schools that there is an increasing discrepancy in vocabulary among children entering elementary school. I’m deeply concerned that such a discrepancy would lead to differences in their academic performance levels, which might not shrink in the future. As a countermeasure, I have an expectation that repetitive learning with the use of IT is effective. Upon hearing the utilization of IT in the classroom, many people tend to conjure an image of everybody working silently with a tablet. In order to exercise human potential that is essential in the era of AI, the significance of learning in a group setting such as studying and teaching from one another is increasingly important. We need to consider the ways to bring about proactive, dialogue-based and engaging learning, giving thought to how to create a lesson unit with a particular intention. I assume future teachers would be required to not only have teaching skills, but to also play a producer-type role to stage and coordinate learning for their students.

Asano: What I’m concerned about is that classes tend to proceed with a predetermined approach based on a teacher’s plan.

Goda: Predetermination is what the Japanese educational circle has to overcome. For example, in the dotoku (moral education) class, a “special subject” (introduced in April at elementary schools and to start at junior high schools from next April), it is supposed to be taught that if students discover an instance of bullying, they are recommended to report it to teachers and parents at once. At the same time, according to another dotoku guideline, it tells students to place a thorough trust in friends.

We consciously included such conflicts in moral value in the new curriculum guideline. Each idea sounds harmonious by itself. However, what people would inevitably face in the real world are conflicts of values and a gap between these values and reality. We want students to cultivate skills to squarely face dilemmas and unexpected problems, and coordinate them well, as well as nurture abilities to responsibly carry out things; rather than just seeking to resolve these issues with only pleasant conversation.

Unlocking common sense

Asano: I personally feel that teachers themselves are caught up in the present idea of common sense or stereotype that “the conclusion should be this.” So, to carry out active learning in a true sense in the classroom, the first step would be to relieve them from such notions.

Goda: I think it’s the same for us parents and companies. People’s attitudes have not caught up with the social changes of the past five or 10 years, a volume of change so large that it can be described as destructive.

That being said, if we were to change our perspective on children, we can say that children have the potential to challenge and create new things because of their penchant for destruction.

Asano: To relieve teachers from said notions, it’s essential to have exchanges with various organizations, such as the economic circle and nonprofits. So for that reason, we’d like to create opportunities to talk. I’m sure the words from people who generate new values would resonate more with them than those of ministry officials.

Our ministry’s demonstration experiment works to develop a new educational program utilizing edtech and others through collaborations among private firms, nonprofits, junior high and high schools across the country. We’d like MEXT to be part of this framework and in the meantime, we’d like to join MEXT’s platform that involves educational board chiefs and school principals. We’d like to bridge our borders more and more.

Dialogue with various groups

Goda: I’d definitely like to hold talks between people who generate new values and teachers and parents.

I’m also in charge of work reform at schools, so I want to change the current situation. Our ministry would like to engage in a dialogue with manufacturers and startups in the education field, explaining that the introduction of edtech would drastically change the quality of education. At the same time, we seek to redefine the expertise of teachers again and to transform the quality of education and the way the teachers work at once through building a social consensus. I’m aware that this is a theme leading to how the country should be.

Asano: Let’s work on things together for years to come.

A teacher standing in front of a blackboard oversees a large class — this image of the typical classroom has persisted for more than 150 years since the Meiji Era.

Daisuke Inada, CEO of atama plus Inc., which provides study support through artificial intelligence, says he wants to drastically transform this long-lasting image. He jointly founded the company, based in Tokyo’s Chuo Ward, in April 2017 with two of his classmates from his alma mater, the University of Tokyo, after working at a major trading house.

The company offers an approach that utilizes AI to analyze a customer’s learning history, degree of concentration and propensity for mistakes on a real-time basis. This enables the firm to provide customized learning materials for each individual. Although the service has only been around for a year or so, it has been increasingly utilized by major private preparatory schools.

The advantage of using AI is being able to unfailingly identify the root cause of why a student is unable to solve a problem. For example, the sine formula is something first-year high school students tend to struggle with. People generally believe that simply solving similar problems over and over would eventually lead to overcoming their struggles. However, the reason behind this difficulty varies among students.

One student was told through the service that the reason of failing to solve a sine formula problem was their lack of understanding of what a triangle’s circumcenter is, which is necessary preliminary knowledge. The student went on to be advised that it’s efficient to review the Pythagorean theorem, which is taught in junior high school. The company says if a student works on solving problems for a while, its AI can figure out their strong and weak points, as well as the student’s level of understanding.

Inada hopes to halve the required time for basic learning through the company’s service and to enable students, using the surplus time, to nurture abilities to live independently in the future society. He thinks teachers would be able to play a primary role such as encouraging and taking care of students, without having to engage in a one-way lecture, if AI and humans share roles; with the former committing to teaching and the latter to coaching.

Winning hearts of test-takers

Affectionately known as “stapura,” a portmanteau of “study” and “plus,” and popular among students preparing for entrance exams, Studyplus Inc. based in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward offers an education-related app. The company is famous as a platform provider for such students with more than 3 million users.

If a student types when and how much they studied, as well as reference books they used into the smartphone app, those pieces of data would be visualized with graphs showing daily, weekly and monthly records. On first glance, it merely appears to be a digitalization of one’s study history, which used to be recorded manually. However, the company’s service has various features to grab the interest of the digital native generation whose smartphones are always with them.

One of them is the utilization of social networking services (SNS). Some users have said that they would like to boost their motivation by actively interacting with students aiming for the same schools, rather than with close friends, as they prefer not to discuss such topics with them. To meet this demand, the company enhanced its SNS functions, leading to a sharp increase in its app’s users. Additionally, increasing numbers of cram schools and private preparatory schools have used the service, hoping to keep tabs on their students’ study progress at home.

“All in all, what matters is motivation.” This phrase that came up frequently in conversations that Studyplus President Takashi Hirose had with his friends when he was a student preparing for entrance exams. These conversations served as the origin of the development of the service.

“In conventional education, viewpoints from the teaching side were stronger and students’ individual characters and differences among them were not taken into consideration,” Hirose said. “If technological help is introduced, a proactive learning style would take root among students. How to fuel motivation will be a key in the process.”

Talents in programming

Based in Tokyo’s Minato Ward, Life is Tech Inc. is a company leading a new market of programming education. The firm currently focuses on developing online learning services in addition to its core business of operating camps and schools where junior high and high school students study programming and IT.

One of the products resulting from the company’s efforts is a set of educational programming materials that launched in April. The firm signed a license agreement with The Walt Disney Co. (Japan) for these materials, which feature an enhanced taste of entertainment to raise the continuity rate — a challenge of online learning. The product features works to maintain user interest here and there, including popular Disney characters who appear in its lessons and the “Book of Magic,” provided offline that works with the online content and stories.

It has sold well, despite costing ¥128,000, which is by no means inexpensive. Not all of the purchasers have prior experience with programming. However, according to the company, some consumers believe it’s actually a bargain if it’s viewed as an investment since they can enjoy learning programming, a beneficial skill for their futures.

Superheroes in IT field

Life is Tech was founded in 2010 by CEO Yusuke Mizuno, who used to work as a part-time teacher at private Kaisei Senior High School in Arakawa Ward, Tokyo. It is one of the well-established companies among edtech startups.

What led to the launch of the company was an inquiry from one of his students at the high school, who said, “I’d like to create and introduce a self-built game at the school’s cultural festival.” Mizuno thought there must be a similar number of students who like computers and IT as those who are fond of baseball or soccer, but there were no places where they can learn or opportunities to take chances in those fields.

Mizuno has worked on expanding the base of personnel in programming. “We need a system to produce superheroes in the IT industry — something like we see in the baseball world where there is a path to go professional following a successful career at Koshien,” he said. Koshien is a famous national baseball tournament for high school players held at Hanshin Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture.

Eight years after launching his company, he feels social changes surrounding programming education, which has led to the expansion of his company’s businesses. Besides the introduction of compulsory programming education at elementary schools in the near future, close proximity to IT — thanks to the widespread use of smartphones — has spurred on motivation among students to learn.

At the Teens Apps Awards contest where junior high and high school students compete in developing smartphone applications, many students who participated in the camps organized by Life is Tech have won prizes.

Many students have come to share awareness and sentiments such as, “I’d like to do it by myself,” and “Programming is not a special skill.” According to the company, this occurs after they actually see their peers in the same generation solving problems faced by family members or have come to bring their everyday ideas into being, with the help of technology.

A market of $40 billion

According to American consulting firm Frost & Sullivan Inc., the average annual growth rate of the edtech market is estimated to be 18.3 percent. The market revenue is expected to grow to over $40 billion.

Some people point out that Japan lags behind, especially in introducing technology to public education. However, Inada of atama plus said: “It’s the same anywhere in the world in that it takes time to transform the classroom. Once the national strategy becomes clearer, Japan would rather have more rooms to have explosive growth in introducing such technology.”

Mizuno of Life is Tech has his eyes on developing the service overseas, noting, “High-quality Japanese educational materials have been well-received in the U.S.”

Japan has embarked on educational reform, adding the promotion of edtech to the government-led initiative of the so-called human resources development revolution. The edtech market has been driven by fledgling startups, but these days, major firms are active in mergers and acquisitions in this field. Edtech is possibly about to kick into gear after going through this period of growth.