NIJIN HISTORY
From one person’s unease
to a company that
changes education.
NIJIN is a company that does not blame anyone for the problems in education, solves them at the level of systems, and works for world peace through education. That conviction took shape little by little over the life of our founder, Tatsuro Hoshino.
ORIGIN
NIJIN began with
unease about education and
trust in people.
Every person has “the power to be happy” and “the power to make others happy”. That belief was not there from the start as a fine phrase. It grew out of seeing, again and again, the strength people naturally have: in schools, in communities, overseas, in classrooms and in building businesses.
Light up the world through education
By transforming existing education and creating new education, we will build a world in which everyone can have hope in education.
Don’t blame people. Build systems.
Real problem-solving begins by assuming that the problem is nobody’s fault.
ROAD TO NIJIN
The founding journey,
on the way to lighting up the world.
Tatsuro Hoshino’s life and NIJIN’s path have not been a straight line. A long run of failures, unease, encounters and challenges led to the education businesses of today.
Elementary and junior high school years
Where it all began
Unease at school, and a sense of self found in the community.
Both his parents were teachers, yet the schooling he grew up with was far from “proper public education”.
His class collapsed into disorder three times in six years of elementary school, and he had drifted so far from study that he only learned his times tables in the sixth and final year.
After school, though, he mixed with children of different ages and backgrounds in his neighbourhood, and could simply be himself.
Where it all began: watch on YouTube →
High school years
What to do with a life
Spending the life he was left with, all of it, for others.
Even after he moved on to a free-spirited high school with no school rules, he could not find meaning in lessons. Then an accident during those years overturned his whole view of life: a younger schoolmate lost their life before his eyes. He vowed from the depths of his soul to “spend the life I have been left with, all of it, for others”. As manager of the ekiden (long-distance relay) team, he got the organisation moving and led it to the national championships for the first time in the school’s history. That experience is the foundation of the thinking on organisations that supports NIJIN today.
University years
Frustration with teacher training
Building truly worthwhile teacher training with his own hands.
In the university’s faculty of education he found the boredom unbearable, and just three weeks after enrolling he stopped attending. He travelled the world as a tour conductor and earned the title of “top tour conductor” with a customer rating of 4.7. The sensibility he honed as a professional who meets people face to face and creates moving experiences, together with his sharp frustration with university education, led to his resolve to build truly worthwhile teacher training, unlike that of conventional faculties of education.
2013
The world’s education gap
Towards a society where everyone can receive a high-quality education, wherever they are born.
He went to Guatemala as a JICA overseas cooperation volunteer →. His work on reforming teacher training at the departmental (provincial) level led to an offer to work as an education specialist for Latin America. But what he saw there was the reality that the chance to learn depends on the circumstances you are born and raised in. The wish to build a society where everyone can receive a high-quality education wherever they are born began here.
2015
The reality he saw in the classroom
There is no child without light; school simply does not fit some of them.
He began working as a teacher in Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture. The system was well organised, yet he was alarmed that neither teachers nor children were able to be themselves. Seeing individuality buried under uniform education, he felt keenly that children whom school does not fit also need a place where they can shine as themselves. This concern later led to the founding of NIJIN Academy.
2020
The potential of communities and people
Drawing out, through systems, the potential that lies dormant in people and communities.
While working as a teacher, he volunteered to support Shin-Mutsu Ryokan, a long-established inn that faced a business crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic. Working side by side with its 80-year-old proprietress, he helped improve operations and get the word out, and contributed to the inn’s revival. The experience of finding the potential dormant in people and communities, and creating new value by bringing others on board, had a great influence on how he later built education businesses.
2021
Solving it with systems
Social problems can be solved with systems.
To solve a parenting problem, “the only playmates children have are their parents”, he launched and ran “Hoshi no Asobi Juku →“, a play-based after-school class held on days off for children of different ages to play outdoors together, in partnership with Hachinohe Park and Hachinohe Junior College. He became convinced that problems in education and parenting can be changed not by blaming anyone, but by creating places and systems.
2022
NIJIN founded
NIJIN is founded to build a future with hope in education.
Education is nation-building. To build a future in which everyone can have hope in education in Japan, he left teaching and founded NIJIN Inc. Jugyo Terrace → grew into a community of more than 400 teachers in its first year.
2023
Creating new education
The joy of learning and a place to belong, for children whom school does not fit.
While continuing to make existing classrooms HAPPY, he founded NIJIN Academy → to promise children whom school does not fit the joy of learning and a place to belong. An elementary and junior high school opened in the metaverse.
2024
Expanding across Japan
In-person classrooms across Japan. Sharing a new vision of education.
NIJIN Academy began opening in-person classrooms across Japan. He also published his first book, “Psychological Safety in the Classroom →” (Kyoshitsu no Shinriteki Anzensei, Meiji Tosho, in Japanese), sharing a new vision of education across the country.
2025
Recognition from society
Gathering speed as a start-up building education infrastructure.
The “diversity × co-creation with society model”, the first in Japan to offer portable public education, has been highly praised, receiving the Prime Minister’s Encouragement Award and what is known as the People’s Honour Award for young people → and first place at the Nikkei pitch contest →, among others. NIJIN is gathering speed as a start-up building education infrastructure.
NIJIN from here on.
Where we began leads on to our vision for what comes next. Please take a look at the future NIJIN is working towards, and at the education businesses we run today.