Children try their hands at business in an entrepreneurial workshop for kids. (Kagawa Prefecture) CHILD ENTREPRENEURS: Training the CEOs of the Future March 4, 2002 To encourage the development of future business leaders and invigorate Japan's economy, schools and local governments have recently added entrepreneurial education to the curriculum and have been holding events to help kids develop their business skills. Learning How to Run a Company Last October, Kagawa Prefecture held an entrepreneurial workshop for children in the city of Takamatsu. Participants divided into small groups. Each group had to select a company president and managers of finance, sales, and so on; draft a business plan; and produce a product from the materials provided. The "companies" offered their products for sale the following day at the workshop venue. A total of 30 kids participated - 20 boys and 10 girls, ranging in school year from the higher grades of elementary school to middle school. One of the participants said, "I came because I heard we might get a chance to try being a company president. In the future, I want to be a real company president." In Gunma Prefecture, students took time during their summer vacation to learn about the traditional local industries of loom weaving and indigo dyeing. After devising a business plan and approaching the "bank" for a loan, the kids set up a company to produce the distinctive indigo-dyed material and held a sales event at a vacant shop in the area. Kagawa and Gunma prefectures implemented their programs with the help of advice from the pioneer of entrepreneurial education in Japan, Professor Takeru Oe of the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies at Waseda University. Professor Oe, who worked as a corporate management consultant for about 30 years, is engaged in a variety of activities aimed at teaching entrepreneurial skills to children and young people. Says Oe, "Almost all successful entrepreneurs experienced simulations of founding businesses while they were children. I made up my mind to teach people how to manage money properly from the time they are children, just as they do in the United States, which produces many entrepreneurs."   Your Name What did you think of this article? It was interesting. It was boring. Send this article to a friend Trends in Japan Home Learning About Society Through Business Since 1996 Professor Oe has been involved in running an entrepreneurial camp for kids, and in 1998 he formed the Venture Kids Club (site is Japanese only), which holds annual entrepreneurial events for kids based on the concept of teaching them about society through business. In fiscal 1999 the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry allocated ¥41 million ($303,700 at ¥135 to the dollar) "to educational materials, projects, etc., to cultivate the entrepreneurial spirit." This money is being used to publish entrepreneurial education materials for elementary, middle, and high schools, and has provided Professor Oe with funds to set up entrepreneurial study groups. Some companies are also starting their own entrepreneurial education programs. Self Wing (site is Japanese only), a company founded in March 2000 by Yukiko Hirai, one of Professor Oe's former students, holds entrepreneurial education events for kids and has developed programs to teach people how to plan and operate entrepreneurial camps, and how to be camp counselors. Both Kagawa and Gunma prefectures have used the company's programs, and Self Wing is setting up projects to dispatch "supertrainers" to schools to guide teachers in running the entrepreneurial education programs being held at several schools on a trial basis. "We've received a lot of requests from economically depressed regions," says Hirai. "Municipalities wishing to set up the infrastructure for creating jobs are starting to take a long-term view of economic revival." Self Wing also develops entrepreneurial education programs for high schools and universities. And it provides the curriculum that allows children to experience simulated economic activity in eTown, Japan's first permanent facility specifically for entrepreneurial education, in Chiba Prefecture. Copyright (c) 2002 Japan Information Network. Edited by Japan Echo Inc. based on domestic Japanese news sources. Articles presented here are offered for reference purposes and do not necessarily represent the policy or views of the Japanese Government.