This morning, the General Assembly of the Cross-Party Parliamentary League on ICT in Education was held.
Just yesterday, a Cabinet decision was made stating, “We will promote the development of high-speed, high-capacity network environments (school LANs) in schools and, particularly at the compulsory education level, aim to create an environment by Reiwa 5 where every student in every grade has their own device and can make full use of it.”
Today’s general meeting, held with full media access, seemed to have slightly more attendees than usual.
At the outset, Secretary-General Moriyama touched on the recent economic measures and delivered a speech that resonated with me, stating, “This is the significance of enacting a single law.”
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) explained that, through close collaboration among the three ministries and by mobilizing all cutting-edge technologies—including 5G/LTE and cloud computing—they will realize “learning optimized for each individual, leaving no one behind.”
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications discussed the continued implementation of regional ICT clubs and the utilization of technologies like Local 5G in educational settings.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry addressed the promotion of EdTech and STEAM through the “Classrooms of the Future” initiative, as well as the goal of achieving one device per student as a prerequisite for this.
It reaffirmed my belief that under the current administration, things really start moving when the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry take action (*^^*)

It was in 2010 that the government first set the goal of establishing a learning environment where every student has their own device by 2020.
However, at the meeting of this parliamentary league held two sessions ago (I think?), a report was submitted stating that it would take 25 years just to achieve the target of equipping one out of every three classes. A few months have passed since then.The law has been passed, and discussions on economic measures have emerged. It looks like we’ll be able to make a fresh start toward creating a learning environment where children can look forward to a bright future in 2020, the year of the Olympics.
The other day, 10 public interest organizations—including Learning of Tomorrow—submitted a proposal, and we’ve received concrete action proposals from several of these groups regarding the used device distribution market mentioned in that proposal.I expressed that we, too, intend to do our utmost as ONE TEAM.
That is what I had to say.

The photo shows a Rwandan banknote depicting children studying with one laptop each.
Rwanda is promoting the OLPC (One Laptop per Child) project.