EDUCATION / SOCIAL CHANGE
NIJIN’s education ventures Answering education’s problems with ventures.
School doesn’t fit. Teachers are left on their own. The information people need doesn’t reach them.
NIJIN is a company that doesn’t blame anyone for the problems in education; it solves them by changing the system.
By changing school education and creating new forms of education, we are building a world where people can feel hopeful about education.
NIJIN’S APPROACH
Don’t blame people. Build systems.
We don’t put the cause down to a lack of effort by children, teachers or families.
We look at the structure behind each difficulty and build a new system as a venture.
Don’t blame anyone
See the structure that creates the problem.7 EDUCATION BUSINESS FIELDS
Facing education’s problems:
seven areas of work.
Education’s problems cannot be captured in a single category. NIJIN faces the complex problems of children, teachers, families and society by building systems in seven areas of work.
Find by venture name BUSINESS INDEX
01 Area of workLEARNING CHOICES
School non-attendance and learning options
The education problem we face
Just because school doesn’t fit, children put a lid on their own potential.
Some children suffer because, under uniform standards and fixed relationships, they cannot be themselves. The problem is not the child. It lies in a system where it is hard to choose how you learn and whom you learn with, and where the quality of education can no longer be guaranteed once a child stops going to school.
NIJIN’s approach
Starting from each child’s own agency, we create education.
Starting from who each child wants to be and to become, we create educational options that stand alongside school. Together with society, we create learning in which children’s individuality and abilities come through.
NIJIN Academy
Elementary and junior high school students who want to choose learning that suits them, and their parents
- The problem we face
- Just because school doesn’t fit, children come to reject their own individuality and potential.
- The system we are building
- Guided by the philosophy “Be HAPPY, Do HAPPY”, it offers learning founded on diversity, agency and choice. Through skilled teachers and co-creation with society, it lets each child’s individuality and talent shine and turns school non-attendance into hope.
NIJIN High School (Niji-ko)
High school students, children considering high school, and their parents
- The problem we face
- Even with more high school options, loneliness, too little dialogue and worry about life after graduation remain.
- The system we are building
- It combines support towards high school graduation with dialogue among peers and projects that start from each student’s own interests. It nurtures “originality and expertise” and leads on to a path that is each student’s own.
02 Area of workCURIOSITY & EXPERIENCE
Inquiry and links with society
The education problem we face
Children have things they love, but too few chances to act on them.
A child may have an interest but be unable to take it further alone. It is hard to see how what is learnt in the classroom connects to society. Children need chances that link their curiosity to peers, to adults and to real challenges.
NIJIN’s approach
Turning after-school hours into project time connected to society.
We make it possible to choose a new kind of learning without changing your current school.
NIJIN After-school
Project School
Elementary and junior high school students who want to go deeper into inquiry while attending their current school
- The problem we face
- Even when children have something they love, it is hard to find peers to explore it with or chances to try it out in society.
- The system we are building
- While attending school, children take on projects after school and on days off with peers from across Japan, companies and adults in local communities. Starting from what they love, they build up experience of thinking, making and communicating.
03 Area of workTEACHERS & CAREERS
Teacher learning and working lives
The education problem we face
Teachers’ learning and working lives should not be left to each teacher alone.
I want to change my lessons. I want to make my school better. I want to keep working in a way that is true to me. The teachers who feel this most often carry worries they cannot fully talk through inside their own school. We create an environment where teachers themselves can learn, choose and take on challenges.
NIJIN’s approach
Outside school too: peers to learn with, and options.
Improving lessons, practice in the classroom, career choices. We address each with a dedicated system.
Jugyo Terrace
Elementary school teachers
- The problem we face
- They want to teach better lessons, but shoulder both the study of teaching materials and the work of improving lessons alone.
- The system we are building
- Teachers across Japan connect online, observe one another’s lessons and share practice and ideas. We are building a system for learning beyond the limits of school and region and taking it back to the everyday classroom.
Chugakko Terrace
Junior high school teachers
- The problem we face
- Even with ideas for improving their school, they have no one to talk to frankly or to back one another’s attempts.
- The system we are building
- Junior high school teachers across Japan share classroom management, school duties and everyday worries. Through online dialogue, training and presentations of practice, one teacher’s “I’d like to try this” becomes a first step in their school.
Sensei Career Coach
Teachers thinking about how they work and their future career
- The problem we face
- Stay in teaching, or take another path? They worry alone, without knowing their options.
- The system we are building
- Coaching for self-understanding, conversations with mentors who have been there, and hands-on work experience make the options concrete. Without assuming a change of job, we accompany teachers as they choose a way of working they are convinced by.
04 Area of workINFORMATION & UNDERSTANDING
Lack of information and isolated families
The education problem we face
Families carry their worries without knowing the options.
What should you do when your child says they don’t want to go to school? What ways of learning and what support exist? Not being able to find information, and the assumptions of people around them, can drive children and parents into a corner.
NIJIN’s approach
Linking the information people need and real voices to the next step.
Through articles and video, two different ways in, we widen understanding of diverse ways of learning.
Nijiiro
Parents and supporters with concerns about school non-attendance or ways of learning
- The problem we face
- They want to find learning and support schemes that suit their child, but cannot reach the information they need.
- The system we are building
- It publishes information on alternative learning centres (“free schools”), future paths and support schemes, with expert insight and personal accounts, searchable by concern or by region. It delivers the information families need to think about their next step.
Principal Tatsuro (YouTube)
Parents, teachers and anyone interested in education
- The problem we face
- School non-attendance and problems in schools get talked about as the responsibility of children, parents and teachers alone.
- The system we are building
- It shares on video the voices of children and parents, conversations with experts and explanations of education news. Rather than blaming people, it prompts viewers to think about systems and learning options.
05 Area of workEDUCATION BEYOND BORDERS
Borders, language and unequal education
The education problem we face
Country, language and where you live become barriers to learning.
An international education is hard to choose. The Japanese-language barrier makes it hard to make friends. There is no teacher or school nearby. Building on the education systems we have developed in Japan, we are working to deliver learning across borders.
NIJIN’s approach
Free from the limits of place, learning with peers around the world.
Including projects that are in preparation or at start-up stage, we are extending how far education reaches.
NIJIN GLOBAL ACADEMY
Children in Asia and Oceania, and their parents
- The problem we face
- Assessment centred on test-score rankings, and the barriers of location and fees, make it hard to choose an international education that suits you.
- The system we are building
- We are preparing a school not tied to place, centred on dialogue and projects with peers from many countries. It aims for an education that develops each child’s individuality rather than applying one yardstick to all.
Opening planned for September 2027
See the vision and opening details (NIJIN GLOBAL ACADEMY, opens in a new tab)
Tomodachi Japan
Children in Japan and abroad who are learning Japanese
- The problem we face
- The Japanese-language barrier narrows not only study but also children’s ties to friends and to places where they belong.
- The system we are building
- We are preparing a way to learn Japanese online through conversation with children in Japan and shared interests. It goes beyond grammar study to create the experience of becoming friends and a place children can keep coming back to.
Pilot opening planned for December 2026
See the Japanese programme and opening details (Tomodachi Japan, opens in a new tab)
NIJIN ACADEMY ALL HAPPY
Children whose chances to learn are limited by where they live or their circumstances
- The problem we face
- Geography and family circumstances change a child’s chances of meeting teachers and high-quality lessons.
- The system we are building
- We envisage live online lessons and a place of learning that connects peers around the world. We are taking on the challenge of building a system that brings teachers and learning even to places where attending school is difficult.
Founding members wanted
See the concept and how to join (NIJIN ACADEMY ALL HAPPY, opens in a new tab)06 Area of workPEOPLE & ENTREPRENEURSHIP
People and venture building
The education problem we face
The wish to change education rarely takes shape as action.
People who want to be involved in education, or to build new systems, exist both inside and outside schools. But without contact with schools and classrooms, without peers, and without a chance to turn ideas into a venture, their commitment and expertise do not lead to change in education.
NIJIN’s approach
Developing people, connecting peers, and adding to those who build systems.
Through support for entrepreneurs and through community, we build the foundation on which people tackling education’s problems can meet, learn and start to act.
Hoshino Entrepreneurship School
People who want to solve education’s problems through business
- The problem we face
- Even with the wish to change education, they lack the know-how to build a venture and a footing from which to act.
- The system we are building
- Drawing on NIJIN’s schools, people and network, participants go from finding a problem to building a venture. Facing customers and testing hypotheses, they grow into practitioners who can run education ventures.
NIJIN Education Lab
People with other kinds of expertise who want to be involved in education
- The problem we face
- Even those who want to lend a hand to education have few points of contact for meeting schools and getting started with others.
- The system we are building
- An online community bringing together educators and people from many fields in the private sector. Through meeting archives, learning and exchange, members find out where education stands today and find a way into ventures and projects.
07 Area of workTEACHER SHORTAGE & INFRASTRUCTURE
Teacher shortage and education infrastructure
The education problem we face
Just because there are too few people to teach, chances to learn are lost as well.
While the teacher shortage worsens, there are people outside schools who want to lend a hand to education. Conventional arrangements around qualifications, place, time and training costs make it hard to connect people who want to teach with children who want to learn. We need a system in which the quality of and access to education do not depend solely on the dedication of a few.
NIJIN’s approach
Developing people who teach, and changing the very system that delivers education.
Using AI and online tools, we are redesigning how teachers are trained, supported, certified and learn from one another. We are building next-generation education infrastructure in which more people teach and high-quality education reaches across distances.
Ranius
People who want to teach, and people building systems to deliver education
- The problem we face
- Despite the teacher shortage, limits of time, place and working arrangements make it hard for people who want to teach to take part in education.
- The system we are building
- We are developing AI-supported training, mentoring and certification, and a system for teachers to learn from one another. We will test systems that sustain the quality of education while lowering the cost and time of training teachers.
Comparative trial planned for December 2026
See Ranius’s concept and trial plan (Ranius, opens in a new tab)CONNECTED FOR CHANGE
Every venture
starts from this belief.
For children who learn at school and for those who learn elsewhere.
By linking teachers’ learning, children’s learning and contact with society,
we are widening the options in education.
From teachers’ learning
to children’s learning.
Observing one another’s lessons and refining practice. We build systems that carry teachers’ learning into each classroom.
From one school
to learning you can choose.
Online, in the community, after school. We bring other ways of learning to children whom their current environment alone could not reach.
Making education
everyone’s challenge.
Delivering information, connecting peers, developing people who will carry education forward, and building the next education infrastructure. We are creating more ways for diverse people and organisations to get involved in education.
CO-CREATION
Facing these problems
together.
I want to support learning in my community.
I want to bring my company’s technology and work to children.
Solving education’s problems takes many kinds of strength, more than schools alone or any one company can offer.
NIJIN creates education together with local governments, companies, universities and communities.
Lend your strength to the work of changing education.
Work with or join NIJINThis page sets out the main education problem each venture addresses. A single venture may relate to more than one problem. Initiatives still in preparation or development are marked as such. For the latest on services and planned openings, please check each venture’s official site.