Tokyo, July 26, 2019 - Rakuten, Inc. today announced that this year’s "Rakuten IT School NEXT" program, an initiative in which high school students and local residents work together with Rakuten employees to design the future of their communities, will start from July 27 at 10 schools across Japan.
In this year’s Rakuten IT School NEXT, 150 high school students from 10 high schools across Japan will work together with local residents and 55 Rakuten employees to formulate and implement various measures leveraging technology with the aim of realizing "an Ideal Future in 2030," the concept for this year’s program. Each participating school has chosen a theme with a strong connection to the local community and contains the keyword "2030," which is the target year of the SDGs*1. Students at each school will draw up a vision of the ideal future for their specified theme, and then draft up measures to achieve this vision using the "backcasting" method.
In the program, a three-day workshop will be held at each high school in July and August to formulate ideas. Following this, students at each high school will then discuss the implementation of the measures together with local residents and Rakuten employees. The usefulness of the measures will be examined at the Verification Day scheduled for October, and presentations will be made at each school in November. The teams selected as representatives of each school will then present their respective measures at the results presentation, to be held in Tokyo in December.
Rakuten works with various stakeholders to promote diverse initiatives to acheive SDGs based on its corporate mission of contributing to society by creating value through innovation and entrepreneurship. Among the 17 goals set forth by the SDGs, this program implements activities for the following goals: 4. Quality education; 10. Reduced inequalities; 11. Sustainable cities and communities; and 17. Partnerships for the goals.
Rakuten will continue to leverage its resources and technologies to contribute to the creation of a sustainable society through collaboration with local communities.
*1 The "Sustainable Development Goals" are described in the "2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," which was adopted at the United Nations Summit in September 2015. It consists of 17 goals to be achieved by 2030 and is formulated to comprehensively address issues from environmental, political and economic aspects. Rakuten is working on a range of initiatives to achieve SDGs through a wide range of services, partnerships and initiatives.
URL: https://global.rakuten.com/corp/sustainability/commitment/context/
Participating High Schools, Themes, and Schedule Workshop Months
Hokkaido Yubari High School "Happiness 2030" (August)
Iwate Prefectural Kamaishi High School "Open City 2030" (August)
Iwate Prefectural Mizusawa Commercial High School "Oshu Primary Industries in 2030" (August)
Ishikawa Prefectural Noto High School "Noto 'Livelihoods' in 2030" (August)
Shizuoka Prefectural Fugakukan High School "Fujinomia Agriculture in 2030" (August)
Tottori Prefectural Iwami High School "Sustainable Fisheries in 2030" (August)
Hiroshima Prefectural Yuki High School "Lifestyle in Jinseki in 2030" (July)
Ehime Prefectural Yuge High School "How to Work on Remote Islands in 2030" (August)
Kumamoto Prefectural Ogawa Technical High School "Digital City Uki in 2030" (July)
Okinawa Prefectural Kumejima High School "Traditional Culture of Kumejima in 2030" (July)
"Rakuten IT School NEXT" Schedule
- Workshops (at each high school):
July 27 - July 29
August 9 - August 11
- Verification Day (at each high school): October
- School presentation (at each high school): November
- Results presentation (in Tokyo): December 14