1. 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
university
for 2 - 6 years
high school
for 3 years
junior high school
for 3 years
elementary school
for 6 years

2. 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
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

3. 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

4. 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_v
alley
2. Ken Robinson: How schools kill creativity

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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.