The 8th IISIA Reading Club took place this Monday. This was a result of the activities including the Prep Schools up to 2019, which were discussed in the blog (Looking Back on the Educational History of IISIA), and our Institute’s efforts to develop a new education system from 2020 onwards. The theme of the IISIA Reading Club is ‘Entrepreneurship education of knowing the past correctly and looking to the future’ from the books. Specifically, two or three assigned books on the theme are presented to each student, who reads them carefully and then gives a 10-minute presentation in groups. This is followed by a commentary and lecture by Takeo Harada, CEO of our Institute. This week, Monday 17th June, was the first IISIA reading session held in 2025.

　

However, this time, unlike the lecture format described above, I was responsible for most of this lecture. The theme was ‘Predicting the Rise of Cryptocurrency and its Future’, which covered the history of currencies, stock investment and predicting future forms of currency, and knowing which social structures are transforming to the advantage of whom. (Readers of this blog are probably familiar with stock investments and cryptocurrencies of course. However, these topics are rarely covered in detail at school, and it is difficult to be educated in these areas unless you actively participate in extra-curricular activities and events on these topics, or try to learn them on your own with limited funds at your disposal). It was a heavy responsibility for me to give a 90-minute lecture to the excellent students who normally attend lectures given by Takeo Harada, but I was able to finish the role by covering recent news and touching on the ‘financial assignment*’ that I learned shortly after joining this institute. (*Financial assignment: the assignment given by our institute to observe the stock price of a company I chose every day for approximately three months, and followed the relationship between a particular stock price and the Nikkei Stock Average and other indices while making predictions).

　To recap, our Institute’s definition of ‘information literacy’ is ‘the ability to create a future-oriented roadmap based on an unbiased and correct understanding of the past and the historical principles derived from it’. We believe that “education” is at the heart of the social contribution projects we undertake to realise our vision of ‘Pax Japonica’, which is to nurture the human resources of tomorrow. Our Institute has actively promoted entrepreneurship education, including “information literacy”, for students in Japan and abroad in the form of lectures, reading clubs and internships. This is because fostering ‘entrepreneurs’, in other words, human resources capable of creating ‘0 → 1’, will ultimately lead to the creation of ‘human resources that create the businesses of tomorrow’ in Japan, bringing about a ‘positive cycle’ in the country.

　As some of the members of the Takeo Harada Gemeinschaft membership service may be aware, our Institute has not only conducted educational activities for students as described above but has also conducted educational activities for its members=adults.

　In 2023, our Institute, in collaboration with its sister organisation, the Research Institute for Japanese Globalisation (RIJAG), organised a free series of lectures under the title of the Compassion for Social Inclusion Project. Our Institute was aware that the widely known concept of ‘No One Left Behind’ or ‘Social Inclusion’ was a challenge, especially in Japan, where it was strongly pointed out that the solution to the problem had not yet been reached. In this context, we have been asking ourselves, as Japan has entered an era of asset bubbles, what the actual situation of those in need of social inclusion is, and in what new forms of social inclusion should be introduced for those who are subject to it in the face of the global money that is surging in like a storm because Japanese society is undergoing a major transformation. The project provided a forum to discuss what these people in need of social inclusion are and in what way they should be included in the new global society. Education is not only for children.

　As mentioned above, our Institute, which has devoted its energies to educational activities and developed various social contribution projects to date, will continue to engage in educational activities with the same enthusiasm in 2025. In closing, I would like to express my views on education in Japan.

　When I think of education in Japan, I always think of a one-way education system for adults to children. I became interested in alternative education as I had doubts about this one-way education system, and one of the things I realised was the importance of family education. The quality and content of education from early childhood to adolescence change with age. However, universal and important at all stages is the way children are treated and educated at home. However, as home education is the duty and role of parents and guardians, it is difficult for a third party to interfere easily. Many university students gradually have part-time jobs that they can ‘spend freely’. This financial freedom expands the range of mobility of the individuals, which in turn increases the number of adults involved and makes them realise how small their world is. Once they know the wider world, it is up to them to explore as much knowledge as they want from there onwards. Our Institute provides ‘information literacy’ and entrepreneurship education to students from this stage onwards. However, it is also true that family education before this stage is immeasurably more important. When parents, guardians, and teachers at childcare facilities, schools, and cram schools were all well-known adults for children, the influence of the way adults interacted with them was enormous, for better or worse. In particular, the proportion of ‘learning’ at home, where children spend a great deal of their time, is significant. Before children can ‘stand’ on their own, adults in the environment in which they live should reconsider their role.

※The statements in this blog are not the official views of the Institute, but rather the personal views of the author.

Chancellery Unit, Group for Project Pax Japonica, Maria Tanaka