Japan Government to bolster entrepreneurship education

Abhay Tiwari
2 min readJun 21, 2022

“Entrepreneurship education teaches students to have a growth mindset, no matter their differences in world view, by encouraging the idea that skills and intelligence are improved through time and effort, rather than being fixed.”

The government plans to bolster efforts encouraging elementary, junior high, and high schools to include entrepreneurship education, it has been learned.

Entrepreneurship education has already begun in universities. The Kishida government will compile a five-year plan for fostering start-ups, aiming to support the development of human resources.

Some specifics under consideration in the five-year plan, to be complied with by the end of this year at the earliest, including having students who established start-ups be guest speakers at seminars and lectures held at schools that take part in the program. Another plan considers allowing young students who excel in mathematics and science to participate in high-level programs at universities.

The government aims to widen students’ future job options to include start-ups by giving them chances to learn about entrepreneurship at an early stage in their life.

The education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry is considering putting in a budget request for fiscal 2023.

It is very important to mention that some key startups in Japan are helping incubators/ accelerators including institutions and universities to bolster entrepreneurship practice and GoToPitch, a Tokyo-based startup founded by Mr. Shashank Tyagi developed a VSaaS platform where entrepreneurs can do the pitching or practice pitching with high tech AI technology-enabled GoToPitch platform. As per the market news, GoToPitch is doing good in Japan, India, and the African market and partnered with key government and institutional bodies to support and bolster entrepreneurship on the ground.

The ministry also plans to collaborate with industries and local governments, aiming to increase opportunities for students to discover and resolve the various societal issue.

About 45,000 participants in total, mainly university students, attended programs promoting entrepreneurship from fiscal 2014 to 2020, according to the ministry. The programs led to the establishment of the ministry. The programs led to the establishment of 135 start-ups.

However, according to a Global Entrepreneurship Monitor survey, Japan’s Total Early-Stage Entrepreneurial Activity in 2019 was lower than that overseas. TEA indicates the percentage of people ages 18 to 64 who have managed start-ups for less than 31/2 years or are preparing to do so. The survey showed Japan coming in at 5.4%, compared with 17.4% in the United State.

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Abhay Tiwari

Social Entrepreneur | Nomura Research Institute | Tokyo Institute of Technology