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We are preparing to establish a private elementary school in Aira City, Kagoshima Prefecture, aiming for an opening in April 2026. The concept is "a new/old school."

Considering the concept of a "New/Old" school and the formation of a community centered around the school.

"In this project, we declare, 'We will create a "New/Old" school!' Without relying on special players or unique teaching methods, our aim is for the people of the community to build a school environment that is comfortable for both children and teachers, as well as for all those surrounding the school. Through this process, we aspire to articulate highly universal essences as the project's goal."

What is the appropriate community size to achieve a prosperous life?

The other day, when many researchers and players from around the world visited Kagoshima, they were delighted to enjoy bento boxes made exclusively with ingredients from our local, familiar producers. At the same time, they were astonished, asking, "How is such a thing possible?" and exclaiming, "Incredible!"

Since the Industrial Revolution, societal systems have become increasingly complex and vast. Despite rice, vegetables, chicken, and eggs being readily available nearby, we've grown less aware of the fact that they're often transported from the other side of the globe. It has become "normal" for processed and refrigerated goods from afar to be cheaper than those harvested from neighboring fields. However, what we eat every day should ideally be fresh and locally sourced, benefiting not only our taste buds but also our hearts, communities, and the environment.

We believe that learning, especially in today's age, can become even happier and more fruitful if it is rewoven within the small, visible relationships rooted in the rich local culture unique to each region.

Why a "New/Old" school now?

The Japanese education system has been praised as a globally rare entity that has delivered high-quality educational environments to every corner of the country.

However, alongside the changing social environment, voices calling for a review of the way schools are run have been heard from various quarters.

For example, there are concerns about the increasing workload and shortage of teachers, the growing number of children who cannot or do not go to school, adapting to new methods of learning, and challenges such as the weakening of community ties and declining population leading to school closures and mergers. Despite being pointed out for years, the issues surrounding schools have yet to be fully resolved.

One reason for this is the high level of completion of the education system, which has led to increased rigidity in institutional and organizational structures, making it difficult to easily adapt the learning environment to change. In this sense, one of the aims of this project is to carve out a compact space by establishing a private school and then, with a sense of urgency, engage in trial and error to continuously explore "what is fundamental and what is secondary" and to search for "where the starting point lies" in order to generate positive changes consistently.

In designing more effective and profound learning experiences while maintaining a sense of warmth, it will be necessary to approach from diverse perspectives, including not only within the school and education system but also from the viewpoints of the local community and society at large.

Over the past few decades, various trial and error attempts have been made, including creating schools with unique concepts and experimenting with new learning methods outside the formal education system.

Building on this context, we aim to challenge ourselves to "create a New/Old school within the framework of the education system, in collaboration with the local community."

Schools are part of the larger ecosystem of the community and serve as hubs.

In this project, we will undertake the following initiatives from the perspective that "schools are part of the larger ecosystem of the community and serve as hubs."

1.Reopening a closed elementary school to revive it as an elementary school.

We aim to establish a private elementary school, designated as a school defined by Article 1 of the School Education Law, using the former Niidome Elementary School building as its location, with the goal of opening in April 2026.
We will adopt the original name, "Niidome Elementary School," and anticipate enrolling approximately 72 to 90 students.

２．Revitalizing the local community and economy around the axis of learning spaces.

We will create a learning environment together with the people living in the community, including collaborating with local producers for school lunches, and opening up lunchrooms and libraries to the town.

With the elementary school at the center, we will revitalize the local community and economy, starting from a radius of 300 meters and expanding to 3 kilometers, 30 kilometers, and even further into the wider world. This will rejuvenate not only primary industries but also the community and economy of the region.

３．Serving as a catalyst for transformation in schools and communities nationwide.

By continuously sharing the insights generated from these practices, we will contribute to enriching not only this elementary school but also various public elementary schools and education systems across different regions.

Furthermore, by initiating movement from the "pre" stage of closure for small-scale schools in depopulated areas nationwide, we will propose the option of unlocking the potential of the community around schools.

"To eat" and "to utilize language"

In this project, rather than relying on individuals with special skills or special methodologies, we aim to liberate the learning field around the school, where both children and adults can learn, teach, encourage, and rejoice together.

With this premise in mind, we would like to establish "To eat" and "to utilize language" as the pillars of learning.

Due to the impacts of the Industrial Revolution and the recent Information Revolution, the culture of "sharing and eating food with companions, and co-parenting" and the ability to "engage in peaceful communication through language and live happily" have been significantly shaken in recent years (we will elaborate on this in the third article).

When designing a learning environment, we believe the most important thing is not striving to be the best in the world or creating innovations that amaze everyone worldwide, but rather ensuring that everyone involved can continue to be happy as a matter of course.

About Niidome elementary school

A significant trigger for advancing school construction at this juncture was the encounter with a small wooden school building in Aira City, Kagoshima Prefecture.

The Niidome Elementary School, located in a depopulated and aging mountainous area, had students until 2007. Hitachi Maxell's documentary commercial, which followed the school's last seven days before closing, received considerable attention nationwide at the time.

In October 2023, by chance, when we found a signboard for "competitive bidding" at the entrance of this school building, we felt a desire to reopen this closed school once again with the community.

As we shared this idea with people around us, it led to joyful encounters with local authorities, members of the community, and even the last students and staff who appeared in the commercial, as well as the production team from that time.

Future Plans and Operating Members

We are aiming for the opening of the school in spring 2026.

Currently, we have completed the bidding for the school building and site, and have established the "General Incorporated Foundation for the Preparation of Niidome Elementary School" to solicit donations.

We plan to obtain approval at the Private School Deliberation Council meetings scheduled for June and December 2025, and subsequently establish a school corporation.
*Please note that there is a possibility of changing the opening year depending on the situation.

Members

Mizuki Furukawa, a third-year student at Hiroshima Global Academy(HiGA),
Risa Furukawa, who operates nursery schools in Kagoshima,and Shunsuke Ushida, who is involved in education and community development in Akita, have become the initiators and co-representatives, establishing the preparatory foundation.

Takekazu Inoue, from The Japan Research Institute, Limited., and Shinichiro Katsu, a professor at the Cyber University, Junpei Shiramizu, the director of Hiyori Nursery School, have joined as founding members.

We will collaborate with various initiatives, including "Sora no Machi nursery school" and "Hiyori nursery school" operated by Furukawa and Shiramizu, as well as the restaurant "Hinatayama Muku Shokudo" with an attached local produce market, also located in Kirishima City. Through this collaboration, we aim to promote sustainable community development centered around the elementary school, taking various perspectives including food into account.

▽ For more detailed information about Furukawa's project.

In addition, leveraging Ushida's initiatives in Gojome, Akita Prefecture, such as community-participatory public elementary school development, utilizing vacant properties in shopping districts for playgrounds called "Just a Playground," and "Moriyama Village," a housing complex utilizing forest resources within a 30km radius, we will mobilize insights into community development centered around play, learning, and community.

▽ The dialogue between Ushida and Inoue is available at the following link

As an active junior high school student, Mizuki Furukawa will meticulously incorporate the perspectives of the next generation and stakeholders into school development. He will listen carefully to the voices of children entering elementary school from nurseries and junior high school graduates, advancing the creation of a new school with a broad perspectiv

We are seeking donations

To establish a new elementary school in Kagoshima, it is a minimum requirement to own the land, buildings, and two years' worth of operating funds (not borrowed). To achieve this, we plan to seek donations from many people in the future.

Please apply for donations via bank transfer from here.

[Estimated Budget]

• Purchase of land and buildings: 40 million yen

• School building renovation: 200 million yen

• New building construction: 200 million yen

• Two years' worth of operating funds: 150 million yen

• Educational materials, equipment, buses, etc.: 50 million yen

• Equipment for the school kitchen: 8 million yen

• Opening preparation funds: 10 million yen

Total: 700 million yen

We are also running a crowdfunding campaign!

Cheering message from Dan Hill(Strategic Designer)

In December 2023, I was fortunate to be able to visit some of the successful ventures of Risa-san: in particular the thriving kindergartens in and around Kagoshima City, and the related café and farmers market. I have been hugely impressed by the way that Risa-san and her colleagues integrate the work and produce of local farmers into the school food system for the kindergartens—which means that food is also education as well as nutrition. I was involved in similar ventures in Sweden when working at Vinnova, the Swedish government's innovation agency, where we led mission-oriented innovation projects around school food. We were also exploring how to get kids involved in making food, understanding where it came from, and with food waste being used by the community, and for composting.

I could see all these things happening in Kagoshima, under Risa-san's guidance. To have children at kindergarten age learn how to make miso, how to ferment, and also see how their food waste goes back to the farmers as compost in tight circular loops—this is extraordinary. It sets children up to learn about both food and sustainability at the earliest age, and in hugely engaging ways. These approaches could be easily continued through into the elementary school, linked to the kindergartens, which adds more significant scale, and critical mass, to the venture for both farmers and educators. To link this to the farmers’ market and café (Eat Local Kagoshima), is equally interesting and worthwhile. For the café, Risa-san tells me 50% of the food’s ingredients come from around the city, and the other 50% from the wider prefecture.

If the elementary school can be linked to the kindergartens, cafes, farmers market and farms in this way, I think of this as a form of 'vertical integration' (of schools) and 'horizontal integration' (of food systems), which is highly impressive. Yet with no misplaced ambition to 'scale up' into McDonalds! This works because it stays local, and is created by Risa-san, and her team, and the strong personal relationships built around trust, provenance and reciprocal connections with place, culture, and natural environment. These ideas run through all operations, apparently — and in the education aspects, they are clear in the experiences for the young students. To be able to carry these approaches forward after kindergarten stage, into elementary schooling, would be incredibly important for these kids. In return, many of these students will be engaged by the possibility of places like Kagoshima into their futures, which certainly help Japan in future as it moves toward a steady-state population which ought to be evenly distributed across the country.

Extending the education project into the elementary school not only finds an incredibly meaningful 'adaptive re-use' of an existing building for a new use—as an elementary school!—that is entirely logical as well as creative. Through the team's existing networks, it also supports Kagoshima's culture, learning, food, agriculture sectors as well. The care with which Risa-san and her collaborators have realised their projects so far is evident in all details, from the design and maintenance of their spaces through to the quality and diversity of the food produce, from the nature of the operations through to the engaged service cultures. This clear sense of responsibility and reciprocity bodes well for the further evolution of the ventures, and I have no doubt that their attention to detail, focus, passion and care will carry forward to the elementary school project.

As these projects weave themselves together into a new kind of social, cultural and natural fabric, they suggest new lives for regional towns in Japan, helping abate the flow towards the big cities by enabling people to make a meaningful life in these most meaningful places. I truly hope Risa-san and her team can make this happen, as I have seen few projects as quietly powerful as this anywhere globally. I'm cheering them on from Australia, and hope to visit a new/old school, thriving once again, one day!