The Project
The project investigates the motivations behind Japan’s education digitalisation, focusing on the GIGA School initiative and perspectives of policymakers, educators, and industry leaders.
This research project investigates the digitalisation of education in Japan, with a particular focus on the government’s flagship GIGA School initiative. The project seeks to understand why digitalisation is being pursued so vigorously in Japanese education – not only what policies are being implemented, but also the motivations and interests that shape them. Specifically, it explores how different actors – ranging from government officials and corporate leaders to international advisors – frame the goals, challenges, and implications of digitalisation of education.
The GIGA School initiative is positioned as a national effort to equip every student with a personal device and Wi-Fi access, connecting all schools with cloud infrastructures, and promoting data-driven teaching and learning. Yet this vision is accompanied by significant implementation challenges, including uneven teacher training, coordination between national and local governments, and reliance on private sector partnerships.
Through in-depth interviews with key stakeholders, this project explores the motivations behind Japan’s digitalisation of education strategies. The project seeks to understand how government officials, educators, and industry leaders envision the role of technology in driving educational and societal change.
