Why I am building
this school.
A child who once felt out of place can learn to love themselves — through the world. I want to open that door for every child.
Tatsuro Hoshino ／ Founder & Headmaster, NIJIN GLOBAL ACADEMY
The beginning
A child who “didn’t fit” in Japan,
changed through the world.
I founded NIJIN Academy — one of Japan’s largest alternative schools — and have walked alongside more than 1000 children. Again and again, I saw the same thing: a child labeled “a poor fit” for Japanese school would, the moment they experienced the wider world, begin to like themselves — and the world around them.
“What if these children could learn connected to the world?” That question is where NIJIN GLOBAL ACADEMY (NGA) began.
Talent blooms biggest
in the right soil.
Some flowers, like dandelions, bloom the same anywhere. Others, like orchids, open up only in the right ground. So we care, deeply, about the soil each child grows in.
What I believe now
The power to think and imagine
grows with the distance you travel.
The more we place ourselves among diverse cultures and unfamiliar values, the more we discover “who I am,” “the good in me,” and “how wide the world is.” I turned to the international-school model because it is a powerful way to help a child build their own sense of self.
The whole world,
as our textbook.
Dialogue with friends across borders is itself the greatest learning. Culture isn’t a costume — it becomes a lens for seeing the world.
My hope
Turning “I’m not good enough”
into “I love who I am — and the world.”
A child who has felt suffocated by exams and pressure to conform meets friends across the world, and meets a new self — and a new world — again. I want to end, everywhere, the experience of a child coming to dislike themselves because the race for test scores told them they’re “not good enough.” That is why I am building this school.
Tatsuro Hoshino
Founder & Headmaster, NIJIN GLOBAL ACADEMY ／ CEO, NIJIN, Inc.
Born in Yokohama in 1990. Graduated from the Faculty of Education, Chiba University. Served with the JICA Overseas Cooperation Volunteers in Guatemala, where over two years he led teacher-training programs for 5,000 educators across 15 cities — earning invitations from across Latin America as an education specialist for the region. Back in Japan, he taught for seven years as an elementary-school teacher in Hachinohe, Aomori. In 2022, determined to change — from the system up — the reality of “so many children spending their school days with downcast faces,” he founded NIJIN, Inc. and built NIJIN Academy, one of Japan’s largest alternative schools (1,000+ cumulative enrollment). As its principal, he has since led professional training for over 1,400 teachers through programs such as “Jugyo Terrace.” Now he is taking that learning to the world with NIJIN GLOBAL ACADEMY.
Selected recognition
JCI JAPAN TOYP 2025 — Grand Prix & Prime Minister’s Award ／ Forbes JAPAN “100 who will save the world” (NEXT100) ／ NIKKEI THE PITCH SOCIAL — Grand Prix (top prize) ／ Shibuya QWS STARTUP AWARD 2025 — Top Prize ／ ICC Catapult Social Good ／ TV Asahi “BooSTAR,” NHK “Good Morning Japan,” and national media
If this resonates with you.
NIJIN GLOBAL ACADEMY opens in September 2027. We’ll share opening news by email — and we’re looking for founding members (teachers & mentors) to build this school with us.
