CANVAS would like to move on to the next phase.
It has been 16 years since CANVAS was established in 2002 with the goal of promoting activities that nurture children’s creativity and expressive abilities in the digital age.
Workshops are now being held everywhere,
and progress is being made on establishing legal frameworks for digital textbooks and other materials, making programming education mandatory, and enacting the Act on the Promotion of Educational Informatization, which encompasses these initiatives.
When we formulated CANVAS’s activity guidelines in 2005 based on domestic and international research,
we wrote that once these efforts were successfully promoted, a “Law to Promote Children’s Use of Digital Technology” would be enacted.
We believe the current Act on the Promotion of Educational Informatization is equivalent to that.
The situation has changed significantly since 2002, when we began our activities.
At the time of our founding, the barriers to entering schools were high, so we began with activities outside the school system.
However, introducing our initiatives into schools has been our long-cherished goal.
With that aim in mind, in 2010—eight years after CANVAS was founded—we established the Digital Textbook and Teaching Materials Council (DiTT).
As mentioned earlier, institutional reforms are progressing, and the introduction of these initiatives into schools is finally about to begin.
However, societal progress is moving even faster, and we now need to build learning experiences that transcend the boundaries between inside and outside of schools.
With this in mind, in 2018—eight years after launching DiTT—we launched Learning of Tomorrow.
DiTT will be dissolved, and its operations will be consolidated into Learning of Tomorrow. Building learning experiences that transcend the confines of the school—with this in mind, we considered that it might be a good idea for CANVAS to join this effort as well.
However, over the past 16 years, CANVAS has built a cherished community.
Therefore, we intend to continue as an independent organization while collaborating with Learning of Tomorrow.
In recent years, as a specified nonprofit corporation, the proportion of revenue generated from workshops and other commercial activities had been increasing.
At the same time, what CANVAS has always valued most is creating spaces and platforms.
Therefore, moving forward, CANVAS, as a specified nonprofit corporation, intends to return to its roots and focus its activities exclusively on platform development.
Furthermore, we plan to spin off the revenue-generating businesses we have built up to date and actively leverage Yoshimoto Kogyo’s expertise and track record to give back significantly to society.
I have spoken with Mr. Osaki, the president of Yoshimoto Kogyo, on numerous occasions.
He stated, “Yoshimoto Kogyo will become an education company going forward,” and plans to expand Japanese educational content into Asia.
I was deeply impressed by his strong commitment to education and resonated with his educational vision, which centers on creativity and expressive skills.
Furthermore, as he stated in a media interview, “I’m glad Yoshimoto Kogyo is an NPO,”
he has a strong interest in social initiatives—such as regional revitalization and overseas expansion utilizing the company’s 6,000 comedians,and initiatives toward the SDGs;
I believe their approach to organizational management is also well-aligned with CANVAS,
so with investment from Yoshimoto Kogyo, we established CANVAS, Inc. to give back to society through the insights we’ve gained so far.
Furthermore, regarding the digitization of education, we intend to vigorously promote this effort under a framework involving industry, government, and academia centered around the Learning of Tomorrow Association, with the goal of realizing “Learning of Tomorrow” in Japan and around the world.
We look forward to your continued support of NPO CANVAS and CANVAS, Inc.!
We would also love to collaborate with you again under the new corporate structure, so please feel free to contact us if you’re interested!

* We’ve also reported on our future plans in the CANVAS Newsletter.
http://ur0.biz/9lWN

* Previous issues

: http://canvas.ws/nanako/p=17011

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13w6b7eOvj6BbhqFLUqT2SWA0s60XlX5h/view?fbclid=IwAR1d1LtsCAon5DTcX-DGUbO_7ZZBZT4UnTebYH5fzjwnPBuXptw1Nm-DE0I