Shimomura Mako

IBMS104 0889231

April 14, 2014

Establishing Univer-city in Japan

Introduction

In society, there are many problems related to citizen. As a

social entrepreneur, I need to solve such a problem in order to create

and sustain social value. Comparing to traditional corporate

businesses, social entrepreneurship ventures focus on maximizing

gains in social satisfaction, rather than maximizing profit gains.

Therefore, at first I need to explain what I really want to solve in the

future. As Japanese, I think one of the problems is a coherent

system from the school education to job hunting in Japan.

Therefore, some people think my target is children, especially

students. Yet I would like to consider all people who have feelings of

curiosity as targets for my social entrepreneurship.

School Education in Japan

What is school education in Japan? Most Japanese students

“receive” schooling for 19 years. Moreover, they need to study at

school (elementary school and Junior high school) at least for 12 years

because the education is mandatory for children. There are basically

two admission exam in order to choose a school to attend: students

need to pass exam when they go to high school and when they go to

university. Some children decide not to go to high school, and they

start to find their jobs and work in society. However, it is said that

children who got a college education can get “good” jobs in the

future. The next question is what “good” jobs in Japan are.

“Good” jobs in Japan

Most children want to get “good” jobs in the future, so they go

about getting a job while attending to class in university. I heard, in

the Netherlands, generally students start to looking for a job after

graduation from college, not at the same time. Moreover, Dutch

people think the job they really want to do and are interested in is the

good jobs. Through the education in university and in society, children

find what the interest is. Comparing to the Netherlands, most

universityfor 2 - 6

years

high schoolfor 3 years

junior high schoolfor 3 years

elementary schoolfor 6 years

Japanese children tend to have what they really want to do in the

future, so they think fruitful occupation “good”, and they try to get

well-established company.

In my opinion, recent school education system might make this

trend. In fact, Japanese students have fewer opportunities to finds

their interest when they are at school. One of the reasons why they

cannot find it is as I mentioned before that they “receive” schooling

passively, not actively. They have a right guaranteed in the

Constitution to take education in Japan, yet actually they tend to fail

to use the period for finding good jobs “for themselves” and imagining

some action they can take in the future. I think this is a problem

related to the future Japan. Therefore, I really want to solve it by new

education system “univer-city”.

What is “Univer-city”

The univer-city is not a university or college in the traditional

sense but a new system of education in the local community. There

are no entrance examinations; classes take place in the city's

surroundings; and teachers come from all walks of life.

The univer-city has two sides:

1. As a city. For example, in Kyoto, which is one of the most popular

tourist destinations in Japan, there are many relationships

between people and good old shops, and also new cultural and

business activity. Many people who are living and traveling are

gathering.

-> Students can understand what their city is like by using five

senses: touch, taste, hearing, eyesight and smell outside the

campus. Some children might want to work for the city in order to

enliven a part of the city such as shopping streets and downtown

area, downtown area. Some salaried employee might consider

starting a company by using their own knowledge and human

network in order to make a social contribution.

2. As a university. There are much time to think about your interest

and future as a place of learning. All students including whole

generations can have free lesson. The entrance requirement is

that students need to have an inquiring mind or wand to have

such a mind through the education of univer-city.

-> Students can enjoy knowing and learning out of the box,

because they don’t need to do well on exam unlike typical school.

Moreover, they can merge what they already knew into what they

want to know because of atmosphere free of constraints.

There are various people including students and teachers, who

have the common feeling of having feelings of curiosity. Therefore,

children can find what business people are like by interaction; at

the same time they can teach adults what they hope in the future

from a new perspective of children. These interactions will make

society enrich fundamentally, because they get to consider the

problem in society more serious and proactive instead of

committing the question to Japanese government.

Why I want to establish it

I had many opportunities to talk to people about education and

job hunting in Japan. As I said before, Japanese education is not good

for stimulating the creative mind and stretching the curiosity. This is

because Japanese education leads to make students adjust to the

society. It means students tend to lose their own individuality. There

are mostly passive learnings. Teachers teach their subjects. Even

though students are not so interested in the subject, they need to

pass the class because of credits. Actually, what most students in

universities worry about is whether they can pass the class and

graduate from college for four years. Moreover, many students say

that they can’t find what they want to do in the future through

academic education. The reason why they can’t is students get

mainly book knowledge taught on campus by lecturing. Therefore, by

creating this new education system, students will keep their interest

alive.

My Inspiring Talks

There are two TED Talks inspire me.

1. Ken Robinson: How to escape education’s death valley

http://www.ted.com/talks/

ken_robinson_how_to_escape_education_s_death_valley

2. Ken Robinson: How schools kill creativity

https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity

Who

Sir Ken Robinson is an English author, speaker, and

international advisor on education in the arts to government, non-

profits, education, and arts bodies. As an educationalist, he

challenges the way we're educating our children. He champions a

radical rethink of American school systems, to cultivate creativity and

acknowledge multiple types of intelligence.

About Talks

In first talk, Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and

profoundly moving case for creating an education system that

nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.

In second talk, he outlines 3 principles crucial for the human

mind to flourish – and how current education culture works against

them. He tells us how to get out of the educational “death valley” not

only American but also Japanese face, and how to nurture younger

generations with a climate of possibility.

After watching these talks, I felt this situation is not only in

America. Japanese education system also does not develop

intellectual curiosity as he tells in talks. Especially, I face such a

situation as a student. Therefore, I thought the system need to

change somehow for our future.

How to start up social entrepreneurship

According to Enactus NL & KPMG, there is a model having 5 building

blocks, with each its own goals, actions and planning.

1: Focus

2: Needs assessment

3: Development of the concept / plan

4: Pilot/ Try out

5: Do it: Execution & monitoring

1. Focus

Identifying the stakeholders

Our mission and objectives need to be developed bearing in

mind two sets of interests:

1. the interests of those who have to carry them out e.g. the

managers, employees, students and teachers - Internal

stakeholders

2. the interests of those who have a stake in the outcome e.g. the

shareholders, government, interested parties - External

stakeholders

There are various stakeholders such as

students (not only children but also adults)

teachers

the areas in the city where students can use as a ‘classroom’

volunteer staffs who are active in the social community

experts or scholars who give various advices related to urban

development

media agencies who cover a story about the univer-city

Map the stakeholders according to their influence and interest

Where

basically not on campus

- The place decided by each teacher and his/her line

2. Needs assessment

Why

To keep their interest of people

alive

- To increase awareness of the

social inconvenience or problem

- To take care of the problem

on your own responsibility

- To make people take action

- To make society happy

3. Development of the concept / plan

Mission / Vision

Business plan

Comparing to companies, this is like school. Therefore, we don’t need

to care about competitors. However, all we have to care about is the

relationship with students and teachers. If there are no students and

teachers, we cannot do our social entrepreneur. Moreover, we don’t

making a profit directly by offering class to students, because it is for

free, so we will require a good deal of capital when starting up. This

capital is from government assistance and corporation who

understand our vision / goal.