Now recruiting: Country Head
Will you build NIJIN Academy in your country?
NIJIN Inc., an education company in Japan, is looking for Country Heads: one person per country who is both the head of the business and the principal of the school. Could that be you?
Apply for this roleWe want to build a NIJIN Academy in every country: NIJIN Academy India, NIJIN Academy Philippines, NIJIN Academy US, and many more. Each one needs a person who will start it and lead it. This page explains what NIJIN Academy is, what the Country Head does, how the role is paid, and who we hope will apply.
What NIJIN Academy is
NIJIN Academy is an alternative school in Japan for elementary and junior high school students who do not fit conventional school. Many of them had stopped going to school altogether. It opened in September 2023 and is run by NIJIN Inc., an education company founded by Tatsuro Hoshino. He taught at a public elementary school for seven years, then left to build what he calls another piece of educational infrastructure that stands alongside school.
The model is hybrid. Children attend from home through a metaverse campus, choose from about 100 live online classes a month, and can also go to physical classrooms across Japan. NIJIN describes the academy as one of the largest alternative schools in Japan, and it now runs through to high school age.
Figures are those published on NIJIN’s official websites. “Attendance recognition” means the child’s registered school counts learning at NIJIN Academy as school attendance.
See NIJIN Academy as it really is
CCThe video is in Japanese. To watch in English, turn on subtitles, then open Settings, choose Subtitles, Auto-translate and English.
The school’s motto is “Be HAPPY, Do HAPPY”: everyone has the power to be happy and the power to make others happy. The aim is that children come to like themselves, like learning, and like the society around them. The company’s working principle is just as short: don’t blame people, build systems. A child who stops attending is not the problem, and neither are the parents or the teachers. The system is what has to change. In 2026, according to NIJIN’s website, Hoshino was the only person from Japan named among JCI’s Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World.
Why take this beyond Japan
NIJIN Academy began with a problem in Japan. NIJIN’s own website puts the number of children there who are not attending school at about 350,000. The academy was built on the view that these children are not failing. The school they were given simply does not fit them, and they need another place where they can learn, make friends and be themselves.
Japan is not the only country with children who do not fit their school. The shape of the problem changes from country to country. In one place it shows up as absence, in another as families choosing to teach at home, in another as children who are enrolled but have stopped learning. We have looked at official data for several countries and written a separate page for each, with sources. You will find the links at the bottom of this page.
NIJIN states its purpose as realising world peace through education, and its roadmap speaks of moving from Japan to the world. We do not believe a school designed in Japan can simply be copied into another country. What can travel is the philosophy and the experience of running a hybrid school. What must be built locally is everything else, and that is why each country needs its own head.
NIJIN Academy India
A national policy that already calls for multiple pathways to learning. Read the India page
NIJIN Academy Philippines
A system that already recognises alternative learning and homeschooling. Read the Philippines page
NIJIN Academy US
More students learning at home, and many missing school. Read the US page
NIJIN Academy UK
Home education and persistent absence are both rising in England. Read the UK page
Spanish-language pages are open for México, España, Colombia and Argentina, with a Spanish overview here. If your country is not listed, apply anyway. The aim is an academy in every country.
Sources:
The role: business head and principal
The Country Head holds two jobs that are usually split between two people. As business head, you are responsible for the academy in your country as an operation: finding the families it serves, hiring and leading the team, and growing its revenue. As principal, you are responsible for it as a school: what children experience each day, how parents are heard, and whether the place is safe and worth coming to.
The academy takes the name of its country, in the form “NIJIN Academy” plus the country name. You would be the person that name stands for locally. The first task is to work out what children and families in your country actually need and how NIJIN’s approach should be adapted to meet it. The philosophy comes from Japan. The decisions on the ground are yours to lead.
Nobody has done this job before in your country. There is no manual to follow, and that is the point of recruiting a head and not a manager.
Compensation: 10% of revenue, as a guide
The compensation for this role is one formula, stated openly. As a guide, the Country Head receives 10% of revenue, up to a cap of JPY 50 million.
| Revenue (excluding tax) | Country Head’s compensation (10%) |
|---|---|
| JPY 100 million | JPY 10 million |
| JPY 200 million | JPY 20 million |
| JPY 500 million or more | JPY 50 million (cap) |
| No revenue | None under this formula |
Please read this part carefully. The rows above show how the formula works. They are not a forecast and not a promise of income. Compensation is tied to revenue: when there is no revenue, this formula pays nothing. Amounts are stated in Japanese yen only. Revenue here means sales excluding consumption tax (VAT or sales tax). Every other term is discussed in the interview.
If you hand part of the job to someone else. This 10% is the compensation for everything the role requires of a business head and a principal. If you ask someone else to do part of that work, or to supply an ability the role requires, that person is paid out of your 10%.
You build this as a founder, with shares. The plan is to set up a local company for NIJIN Academy in your country together. You hold 20% of the shares and NIJIN holds 80%. As a guide, you invest JPY 1 to 2 million of the starting capital and NIJIN invests JPY 4 to 8 million. We decide the exact amounts with you. That makes the 10% formula a guide, not a fixed pay scale. As the person leading that company, you decide your own compensation as it grows. The details are discussed in the interview.
Who we are looking for
This is a role for a founder. We are looking for someone who wants to start a company in their own country and who wants to solve a problem in education. If both of those are true for you, read on.
Four abilities matter in this role, along with languages:
- Leadership. You can set a direction when nothing has been built yet, and people choose to follow it.
- Management. You can turn that direction into a team, a rhythm of work, and results.
- Business ability. You can run an operation that earns more than it spends, because that is what keeps a school open for its children.
- The skills of a principal. You can earn the trust of children, parents and teachers, and you take responsibility for what happens in the school.
- Languages. Ideally you work in three: the official language of your country, English and Japanese. English alone is fine.
Teaching experience is not required. What carries over directly is experience of managing an organisation and experience of hiring people. If you have built a team, chosen who joins it, and answered for its results, you already know a large part of this job.
You might be running a company, a branch office, a non-profit or a school today. You might have left one and be looking for the next thing worth building. Your background matters less than whether you have led people and whether the idea of starting a school for children who do not fit school is something you cannot put down.
How it works
- Apply. Use the button on this page.
- Online interview. We talk about you, about NIJIN, and about what an academy in your country could be.
- Details in the interview. Form of engagement, location, timing, costs and every other term are not set out on this page. We go through them together in the interview.
Questions and answers
Which countries are you recruiting for?
Every country. Dedicated pages are open for India, the Philippines, the United States, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Spain, Colombia and Argentina, but the role is not limited to those. Tell us your country when you apply.
I have never been a teacher. Can I really be a principal?
Yes. Teaching experience is not required. We are looking for leadership, management, business ability and the skills of a principal, and experience of managing an organisation and hiring people carries over directly.
Is any income guaranteed?
No. As a guide, compensation for this role is 10% of revenue, capped at JPY 50 million. If there is no revenue, the formula pays nothing. The examples on this page (JPY 100 million of revenue gives JPY 10 million; JPY 200 million gives JPY 20 million) only illustrate the calculation.
What about contract type, location, start date and start-up costs?
Contract type, location and start date are not set out on this page. We go through them in the interview. On start-up costs, the guide is that you invest JPY 1 to 2 million and NIJIN invests JPY 4 to 8 million in the local company. You hold 20% of its shares and NIJIN holds 80%.
Which languages do I need? Do I need Japanese?
Ideally three: the official language of your country, English and Japanese. In Taiwan, for example, that would be Mandarin, English and Japanese. But Japanese is not required. English alone is enough to apply and to start.
Is this the challenge for you?
If you want to found a school in your own country and lead it as both its business head and its principal, we would like to hear from you.
Apply for this roleCountry Head roles in other countries
We want a NIJIN Academy in every country. These pages are open now.
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