Background

Japan, which enacted a revised Immigration Control Act in 2018, already has the fourth highest number of immigrants in the world, and the growing influx is fundamentally remaking Japanese society. But Japanese schools have been unable to keep up with such rapid change. The Japanese educational system has for decades valued conformity above all else: the teacher authoritatively imparts knowledge, and students memorize the answer. So Poplar Publishing, a small publisher of picture books, teamed up with the Toda City Board of Education and the Future Institute to form the Diversity Education Project, which tried to figure out a way to get children into the habit of considering the different sides of each issue.

Describe the creative idea (40% of vote)

The idea takes the form of a new type of educational tool called “From the Other Side,” which nurtures diverse viewpoints by encouraging children to consider social issues like justice, LGBT rights, and the value of life from different perspectives. Kids are asked questions like, “Mom says you shouldn’t hit people. So why is it okay for superheroes to wallop the bad guys?” Or “Girls can wear trousers or skirts. So why can’t boys wear skirts too?” Questions like these elicit a multitude of responses by getting kids thinking about all sides of the issue. Every child has a different answer.

Describe the execution (40% of vote)

We created an educational tool that encourages thinking from different perspectives and gets children thinking and talking about diversity. Working with teachers and a local Board of Education, we also designed a public elementary school class shared online as a model case. The educational tool and the teaching guide were made available to download for free, so that teachers all over Japan could easily replicate the lesson themselves. The educational tool was published in the form of a picture book by Poplar Publishing. This took the debate about diversity beyond schools and into the home by getting parents and kids to talk about contemporary social issues like the value of life and LGBT rights. A hashtag campaign was launched to give the project a boost and make it socially relevant, so that anyone could share their thoughts about it on social media.

List the results (20% of vote)

The class taught in school created such a sensation that one TV program put together a debate segment featuring the questions actually used in the classroom. In addition, more and more schools are teaching the class at the initiative of teachers and local Boards of Education. The picture book ranked number one on Amazon Japan in the ethics category and has so far been delivered to 7,000 elementary schools all over Japan — one-third of all elementary schools in the country. It is also slated for publication in South Korea and Taiwan, which have similar education systems as Japan’s. One of our clients, picture book publisher Poplar Publishing, has decided to build on the project’s success by entering the education market.