The day before yesterday, we hosted a symposium titled “The Programming Education Market: A Wave of Entrants from Other Industries,” featuring speakers from SoftBank, Tamiya, LINE, Tokyu, CyberAgent, GMO, DeNA, and mixi. Although heavy rain fell all morning and train schedules were disrupted, the symposium was a sell-out success, with some attendees even standing to watch.Thank you to everyone who spoke and attended.
First, I’d like to report on the presentations from the first half of the event. I’ll report on the discussion from the second half at a later date. I served as the host and moderator, but with so many speakers, I apologize for rushing everyone through their presentations and remarks!

Pepper can now be programmed using a Scratch-based tool. Mr. Tetsutaro Kadowaki of SoftBank spoke about programming education that utilizes Pepper.
For SoftBank, nurturing the next generation is a top priority. As part of its social contribution initiatives, the company is engaged in “support for programming education” and “support for extracurricular activities using ICT.”Regarding programming education initiatives, SoftBank is driving progress by utilizing Pepper. The program is currently in practice at 850 schools nationwide, with a total of 30,000 classes held—making it one of the largest programs of its kind in the world. To ensure Pepper can be utilized from the moment students arrive at school until after school, SoftBank provides multiple robot apps for schools, including English picture book readings, repetitive learning exercises for four academic subjects, greeting campaigns, school event announcements, and radio calisthenics.We also provide school templates so that teachers can use Pepper as a teaching assistant to design lessons.
A key feature of Pepper’s programming education is that it serves as a teaching tool designed to help students “identify problems on their own, devise solutions, and implement them in society.” The goal is for students to gain firsthand experience of how their actions contribute to society. In a practical example from an elementary school, students devised and implemented a solution to address the lack of diversity in books available for checkout in the library. They went on to verify whether the program actually led to a wider variety of books being read and summarized their findings.In a middle school case study, students explored ways to increase the number of foreign tourists and conducted pilot experiments to contribute to regional revitalization. Students handled the entire process themselves—from defining the problem to gathering information, organizing and analyzing it, and summarizing the results. A joint study with the
Tokyo Institute of Technology to measure the curriculum’s effectiveness revealed that it fostered critical thinking attitudes.Critical thinking attitudes were measured using seven scales: curiosity, emphasis on evidence, approach to lessons, awareness of logical thinking, objectivity, listening to others’ opinions, and deepening one’s own thinking.
We look forward to continuing to provide cutting-edge learning experiences using humanoid robots.

Takayuki Ishizaki discusses Tamiya’s approach to programming education.
Tamiya promotes programming (STEM) education from the perspectives of “products” and “experiences.” Tamiya
first released a “product” related to programming education in August 2017:The Cam Program Robot Construction Set. Subsequently, the Chain Program Robot Construction Set and the Microcontroller Robot Construction Set were also released.
Driven by a desire not only to sell “products” but also to establish the environment for their use, Tamiya launched the Tamiya Robot School in April 2018.In partnership with Natural Style, they currently operate 94 classrooms across 29 prefectures. They offer a robot programming course and a mechanics course.
The news of Tamiya’s entry into programming education was the most exciting piece of programming education news I’ve seen (*^^*)

Yuki Nishio of LINE.
LINE’s corporate mission is to bridge the gap between people around the world, as well as between people and information and services. Since the term “LINE bullying” first emerged in 2011, the company has been dedicating significant effort to raising awareness about digital literacy. As an extension of these efforts, LINE has also begun supporting programming education.Based on feedback from schools and with the goal of alleviating teachers’ concerns, the company developed and launched “LINE entry,” a free programming learning platform. In addition to providing free teaching materials aligned with the national curriculum guidelines—organized by subject and grade level—for use in the classroom, the company also conducts outreach classes at elementary schools. The platform also features a “Classroom” function that supports lesson planning and progress tracking.The goal is to create teaching materials that are easy for teachers to use and require minimal preparation time. The platform was released at the end of October, with six teaching materials now available.
LINE entry, which can be used by first-grade elementary school students and up, has five key features: “Fun for Everyone,” “Free,” “Comprehensive Content for Teachers,” “Classroom Function,” and “Open Platform.”
In South Korea, it appears that programming education using “Entry” has been underway in all elementary schools since 2019; please refer to this previous article for an interview on the topic.
http://csforall.jp/interview/3192/

Ayumi Ishikawa spoke about Tokyu Corporation’s “Initiatives in Programming Education.” Under a management plan aimed at creating
sustainable “communities,” “companies,” and “people,” the company has identified the redevelopment of Shibuya and the areas along its rail lines as a key priority. Within this framework, establishing a high-quality educational environment for families with young children is a critical issue.Shibuya, which is undergoing a large-scale redevelopment project—a once-in-a-century undertaking—is aiming to become “SHIBUYA of the World” and has launched educational support initiatives. In June 2019, Shibuya Ward, CyberAgent, DeNA, GMO, mixi, and Tokyu signed an agreement regarding programming initiatives and launched the “Kids Valley Future Learning Project.”The initiative aims to realize a next-generation education model through public-private partnership—made possible precisely because it is
Shibuya—to nurture talent capable of thriving on the global stage while leading the way in Japan’s programming education. The goal is to cultivate “individuals who develop programming skills as a means to freely express their own ideas and possess the motivation to apply those skills constructively to society.”Moving forward, the initiative plans to develop curricula, provide teacher training, offer classroom support, and host workshop events. It also intends to establish collaboration frameworks with universities and other academic institutions and explore expansion into other regions.

Mr. Tomohiro Ueno, who leads CyberAgent’s Education Division, CA Tech Kids, Inc., and Curio, Inc., gave a presentation on CyberAgent’s efforts to promote programming education. The company provides an initial “fun” experience
through hands-on events, and then offers ongoing learning opportunities through its ongoing school programs to fulfill students’ desire to “do more.”Furthermore, for children who “want to master” the subject, the company offers scholarship programs, contests, and certification exams, fostering an environment that “nurtures those who stand out.” The number of participants in “Tech Kids CAMP,” an experiential workshop designed
to spark interest, has increased tenfold over the past four years, with 1,600 participants this year.The program they are most focused on is Tech Kids School, which serves as a platform for ongoing learning. The number of students there has increased twentyfold over the past four years and currently stands at 1,200. The school aims to nurture “people who use technology as a tool to bring their own ideas to life and actively engage with society.”
Tech Kids School aims to teach programming not merely as a form of computational thinking, but as a practical skill. The curriculum has students learn Scratch in their first year, then progress to either an iPhone app development course or a Unity programming course starting in their second year. Students have already released numerous apps. However, scaling this model has proven challenging.Therefore, we launched the Curo Programming School as a program where students can learn visual programming in a fun, accessible, and thorough way.
We’ve already surpassed 1,000 locations. In addition, we organize programming contests and certification exams for elementary school students.
Regarding our efforts to promote programming education in public schools, we’re currently conducting over 100 outreach classes at local governments and elementary schools nationwide.

Mr. Masanobu Naruse gave a presentation on GMO’s initiatives. He has been running “Koeteko,” a
programming class portal. After joining Kids Valley, he began organizing programming events as well. His central theme is breaking down the barriers between “plugged” and “unplugged” learning. He had the participants try their hand at programming a watermelon-smashing game.In 90 minutes, participants learn three concepts: sequential processing, conditional branching, and loops. They learn sequential processing through the sequence of actions: “Rotate 90 degrees → Move 10 steps → Swing the stick down.”They learn conditional branching by determining success or failure based on whether the program touches the watermelon. If there are many watermelons, they learn that loops—which computers excel at—come in handy. Building on that, they try creating a program to draw a star. While we want to share this curriculum, which seamlessly bridges plugged and unplugged learning, with teachers, we recognize that a shortage of instructors remains a challenge.

From Shosuke Suehiro regarding DeNA’s programming education initiatives. As an
internet company, DeNA carries out social contribution activities that leverage its strengths and unique characteristics. Specifically, it supports the development of the next generation of IT talent through three main initiatives: programming education, corporate field trips, and internet etiquette education.The company launched its programming education program in 2014 and has provided hands-on lessons to over 6,000 people. To make the experience accessible to younger children, they released a free app called “Programming Seminar.” It is an educational tool that allows anyone to easily try programming anywhere. The key features of “Programming Seminar” are:
1. An interface
that boosts motivation by bringing children’s own drawings to life The best feature of tablets is their camera function.Children are thrilled when their drawings come to life. They are essentially programming using the drawings they’ve created. Since children can use art supplies they’re already familiar with, it’s easier for them to express themselves and visualize concepts—and it offers the added benefit
of allowing them to incorporate their artwork from art class and other projects.
　 2. Suitable for elementary school students from the early grades; children can enjoy learning
everything from the basics to advanced concepts and creative projects Taking developmental stages into account and incorporating feedback from teachers and students, the app features a 50-sound keyboard and supports Hiragana and Katakana input.Furthermore, the program is designed for step-by-step learning, progressing from “Basics”—where students enjoyably acquire programming skills and learn how to assemble blocks—to “Applications,” where they understand more advanced concepts by referencing others’ work, and finally to “Creation,” where they use their own drawings to produce original works.
3. Track Record
of Implementation in Public Schools 　It has already been introduced in several elementary schools, with over 98% of students responding that they “had fun” and “want to take more classes.”
4. Multi-Device Compatibility and Offline Use

It also includes support features for parents and teachers, such as usage time limits, privacy settings for student work, skill level settings, and the publication of sample curricula and case studies.

Regarding mixi’s initiatives, here’s what Akira Tanabe had to say.As part of its efforts to nurture the
next generation, the company runs a corporate visit program and provides support for programming education. The corporate visit program covers topics such as careers in the IT industry, the work of engineers and programming, and the safe use of the internet and smartphones. In terms of
programming education support, the company participates in Kids Valley and collaborates with middle schools to provide support for programming education and programming clubs.