Harnessing Co-creation to Transform Education(1)

Shunsuke Mori is a youthful 31-year-old leader committed to transforming formal education. As representative director of the International Edutainment Association, he develops educational materials and programs for primary and secondary schools as well as for universities. Entering the educational materials market is no easy feat, considering the necessity for interaction with myriad stakeholders as well as the financial challenges. However, holding true to the Association’s philosophy of “Fostering the skills to thrive, now and in the future,” Mori challenges himself daily to transform the world of education.

The International Edutainment Association, referred to as the IUEO, first joined forces with Yokogawa in 2021 through the Future Co-creation Initiative. Shunsuke Mori recently sat down with us to share his educational vision, the value he seeks from collaboration with the Initiative, and his thoughts on the future.

*Insights shared in this dialogue are personal and do not represent those of any organization.
Affiliations and positions are current at the time of this writing (August 2025).
*The interview was conducted at MIRAI LAB PALETTE (MLP).

 

Issues facing education in Japanese schools

Japan’s academic sector faces a host of challenges, including bullying, educational disparity, and faculty overload.

Japan’s modern education is based on the 1946 postwar school reforms and the 1947 Basic Act on Education. However, Mori continues to question whether these and other periodic modifications have produced a curriculum responsive to societal needs.

“Even today, pedagogy is all too often about cramming knowledge into students’ heads and eliciting correct answers. But in today’s fast-changing world, there are few clear answers—and generative AI now fills the internet with outputs that look like answers. I feel education today is best served by having students identify issues and empowering them to find solutions.”

In 2022, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) incorporated “The Period for Inquiry-Based Cross-Disciplinary Study” into high school curriculums. Yet that is also “fraught with difficulty,” Mori points out.

“The discipline encourages students to apply knowledge gained in traditional subjects when considering perhaps the toughest subject of all: one’s own life. Students should be able to identify profound issues and discover the areas they wish to pursue. However, only one or two hours per week are allotted for class time, which is insufficient. Subjects remain compartmentalized, and the memorization-based teaching model continues to prevail. The hard-won knowledge is seldom put to use during the integrated study time that’s meant for exactly that purpose.”

The IUEO was established in 2018 to alleviate such issues by providing educational programs for real-world applications. Mori has served as the organization’s representative director since April 2020. Intertwining education and entertainment in the foundation’s name—Edutainment—stresses “the importance of joy in learning.”

“I constantly think about what is needed to live happily in a VUCA era (one of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity). In this age of rapid change,” Mori shares, “I’d like to help create a learning environment that enables students to foster the skills they need to thrive, now and in the future.”

Independent thinking forged in Belgium and bolstered by a business contest award

Although Mori is currently putting his international experience to work, he got a “hometown start” in his birthplace of Chiba Prefecture, where he attended public schools. However, during the summer of his second year of middle school, his father was transferred to Belgium, where he first experienced the global world beyond his native shores.

“The international school I attended in Brussels featured a multinational environment with students from some 80 nations. My perspective broadened with exposure to multiple viewpoints and a lifestyle so different from Japan’s. And my values shifted greatly as I learned to think more freely,” Mori affirms.

He went on to study in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program, a Swiss-based curriculum that promotes independent study and inquisitive learning as well as fostering the traits and expertise sought by the global community.

After three years in Belgium, Mori returned to Japan, transferring to a local high school for his final year. He was admitted to university through the returnee student quota, allowing him three months of free time while his classmates studied for entrance exams. Taking advantage of this time, he participated in an entrepreneurship program for high school students. This proved to be a major turning point in Mori’s life.

“Entrepreneurs tutored us each week, and I learned it is possible to contribute toward society by creating services which do not yet exist. It was novel and astounding. People were just shifting from flip phones to smartphones, which triggered an idea. With old, donated devices, I developed a business model for installing educational videos on phones to use in classes held in Cambodian villages.”

He entered his idea in a business contest and won first prize—a million yen. The experience also sparked an entrepreneurial flame in Mori’s heart. His life, which had revolved around soccer from kindergarten through high school, shot off in a new direction.

In search of “being”

Mori now leverages his business leadership to help revolutionize education in Japanese schools. He shared his thoughts on the challenges facing Japanese students and educators, a subject in which he is well versed.

“There isn’t enough time to consider ‘being,’ and that issue plagues educators as well as students.

“In the Be-Do-Have coaching model, ‘Do’ explores what you want to do, ‘Have’ probes what you seek to possess or achieve, and ‘Be’ asks what kind of person you’d like to become. Participating in a club or acquiring a qualification, for example, come under the ‘Do’ and ‘Have’ umbrellas and are familiar to students. Yet while ‘Being’ is the key consideration in these uncertain times, individuals lack the time and opportunity to reflect on it.

“While students are busy with classes, cram schools, and extracurricular activities, educators are equally pressed for time, with no leeway to ponder what kind of teacher they aspire to be. They all miss the ‘being’ part of the equation, which addresses what kind of person they want to be and what happiness looks like to them. In the real world, people are gradually being encouraged to ‘be themselves,’ but a discrepancy remains between that and what is happening in classrooms.

“When Japanese students are asked, ‘How do you see yourself in the future?’ they only respond, ‘I’d like to become a civil servant,’ ‘I hope to achieve a high score on my TOEIC exam,’ or ‘I’d like a job with a good company.’ They never say, ‘I want to lead a certain kind of life and be happy.’ Despite the freedom to choose their career path in today’s world, most young people seem content to ease along a pre-set track.”

Just as Mori was grappling for solutions to this conundrum, he encountered the Future Co-creation Initiative. We asked what he found appealing about the Initiative’s activities.

 

Continued in Part 2