Govt plans to bolster entrepreneurship education for young students

The Yomiuri Shimbun

17:34 JST, June 15, 2022

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 government will compile a five-year plan for fostering startups, aiming to support the development of human resources.

Some specifics under consideration in the five-year plan, to be compiled by the end of this year at the earliest, include having students who established startups 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 startups 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.

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

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 135 startups.

However, according to a Global Entrepreneurship Monitor survey, Japan’s Total Early-Stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) in 2019 was lower than overseas. TEA indicates the percentage of people ages 18 to 64 who have managed startups for less than three and a half years or are in preparation. The survey showed Japan coming in at 5.4%, compared with 17.4% in the United States.