Part 2: Discovering the 'True Joy' of Learning from an Allergy to Education
Q: What kind of image do you have of the field of education, Mr. Kurosawa?
A: Actually, my father was a teacher and eventually became an elementary school principal, and my mother was also from a family of teachers, so I had many educators among my relatives. However, they were strict and left me with a scary impression. My father only knew the world of 'school,' and the line between his own children and his students was blurred; our home was like a school. Having grown up in an environment where I was constantly being scolded, I felt almost allergic to the very concept of education back then. I had an allergy to the establishment, thinking, 'I can't trust school teachers,' and that was when the spirit of rock 'n' roll was etched into my heart (laughs). I typically thought, 'What on earth is the point of studying this?'
Q: As someone who had such an allergy to education, what are your thoughts on our company's focus and service of 'not teaching study'?
A: To be honest, until I met Representative Inoue, I thought that university entrance exams were still just general entrance exams, same as in the past. I believed that unless you were one of the very few excellent students getting in through recommendation slots, you just had to study as hard as you could. However, I was quite shocked to find that it was completely different when I met him. I felt that the sheer volume of information regarding current university entrance exams is something that neither high school students nor their parents can process. So, when I was shown the business content, I thought, 'Oh, this is definitely something that would be incredibly useful if it existed.' Thinking from both the parent's and the child's perspective, I feel that 'as a parent, this would be a huge help.' If I hadn't known anything, I would have just thought, 'I'll just send them to a cram school and it'll work out somehow.' But that's not the case. I feel that the essence of our service is fostering the motivation for children to engage with more essential education, and that is the core of our company's service.
Q: You mentioned that your view on education, which you were allergic to, changed after your child was born. Could you tell us specifically how it changed? In particular, how did your thinking about learning change?
A: Since I've become involved in this business, I'm also planning to get a career consultant qualification. I think to myself, 'Taking two national exams after turning 50?' (laughs), but I was really confronted with where the essence of education lies after my child was born. Because it's my own child, I remember my own childhood. A good thing about having a child is that a parent gets to relive their own childhood. You start to focus again on scenery that you didn't even notice after becoming an adult. You start to notice things like, 'Why do they like pill bugs so much?' Even though as an adult, I never had the chance to interact with pill bugs, nor did I care about the difference between a pill bug and a woodlouse. At the same time, regarding what academics are—I started from developmental psychology—I learned that various researchers have conducted experiments and gathered data on the stages children go through as they grow as human beings, accumulating vast amounts of data to provide evidence. That is still being continued today and exists as the discipline of developmental psychology. Based on that, I learned about how to raise children, such as 'if this happens, it will have this kind of effect on the child later,' or 'they will have this kind of tendency, for better or worse,' and I learned that there is a vast amount of accumulated data from our predecessors, and I became very interested in that. I started by studying attachment theory. It's reassuring to be able to know on an evidence-based level how much the mother-child relationship (relationship with the caregiver) from birth to about age three affects the child's life thereafter. It's unsettling when you don't know anything, but when you know, you can understand, 'Oh, this is a period where this kind of thing often happens, so it's okay,' or 'This is how I should deal with it.' It eases the anxiety about raising children significantly. This is truly essential study and education.
Q: Mr. Kurosawa, you were originally skeptical about studying, but now you are studying so much. What is the reason you find studying fun now?
A: That's right. Once I get curious about something, I'm a rationalist by nature, so I'm greedy for anything I want to know, and I keep thinking about it. I become desperate to look it up. Because of that temperament, I became interested in education. Now, new knowledge and specialized knowledge are coming in one after another, and I find studying very fun. I am surprised every day, thinking, 'Oh, there's this too,' or 'There's that too.'