New Developments in the Kamikubo Seminar (2): The Launch of the "Kamikubo Policy School"

I have already mentioned that starting this academic year, Masato Kamikubo and the Kamikubo Seminar are aiming for new developments.

For example, the "Competitiveness Development Program," which has continued for 12 years as a voluntary learning space for seminar students, is being prepared to become a credit-bearing, formal undergraduate course called "Intensive Seminar" starting next academic year.

In that program, we envision reviving the Kamikubo Seminar tradition of "dojo breaking" outside the university, where each seminar student goes out to hunt and returns with results achieved outside the university, which will then be evaluated and awarded credits.

In a sense, it will be a place to transform Japan's "agrarian-style education" into a true "hunter-style education."

And, as the Competitiveness Development Program becomes a formal course, we will launch the "Kamikubo Policy School" as a new space for voluntary learning.

Until now, there has always been a strong desire for me to run a "private school." The request was for me to spread my educational approach without being constrained by university rules.

I haven't been able to dedicate time to that until now, and it had been shelved, but now that some of my previous work has reached a certain milestone and various new developments are beginning, I thought it was time to move forward with the "school" idea.

There is a saying: "Give birth small, raise big."

The school will launch with six students (one male, five females) from the first and second years of the Faculty of Policy Science who have not yet joined the seminar. There is nothing else. No money. No location. Just people who have the desire to "learn."

They are simply people who have gathered because they are unsatisfied with the "flower garden" style of learning—where motivated and unmotivated students are mixed together in an equal curriculum, holding hands and learning together—which is what is expected in the first and second years of university, and they want to engage in more advanced learning sooner.

But just because they are first or second-year students, there is no reason to refuse those who want to learn under me. The school will launch as a "circle." There are no restrictions on circle activities, right?

The school starts small, but I have not set a ceiling for the future. I hope it will expand rapidly to other faculties, other universities, companies, and even high schools and junior high schools.

I haven't decided anything, but I hope for various encounters that will lead to "serendipitous perfection."

Among the six students, there are some who have known me since high school and came knocking on my door. I hope for unexpected developments from my encounters with them and the many unexpected encounters to come.

To put it jokingly, I would like to try producing some politicians (laughs).

Well then, until next time.