Fostering communication among students through fun, engaging learning content

Tokyo, Japan, June 26, 2025 —MIXI, Inc. will continue, as it did last year, to support the Shibuya Extracurricular Activity Reform Project, which brings together junior high school club activities across schools by providing content and dispatching instructors with the cooperation of local companies and organizations connected to Shibuya. This year as well, we will be responsible for all programs in the Digital Creative Club and will support Shibuya City’s club activity reform by providing content through which students can learn creative skills such as conversation-based programming with the conversational AI robot Romi, graphic design, and video production.

*This was the Digital Creative Division until the last fiscal year.

■Support for the Shibuya Extracurricular Activities Reform Project

As the need to advance work-style reform in schools has grown, and as student numbers have declined due to the falling birthrate, it has become increasingly difficult for the educational system alone to sustain children’s extracurricular activities. In response, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has begun reforming extracurricular activities with the aim of ensuring that children can continue participating in sports and cultural and artistic activities even amid a declining birthrate, while both reducing the burden on teachers and maintaining high-quality instruction. It designated the three years beginning in FY2023 as a reform promotion period and has been working on demonstration projects, mainly focused on expanding weekend extracurricular activities into the community. In May 2025, a national expert panel also issued recommendations to further promote the regional rollout of extracurricular activities, designating the six years beginning in FY2026 as a reform implementation period. Under this policy, weekend extracurricular activities are, in principle, to be transitioned entirely to community-based extracurricular activities by FY2031, while weekday activities will also be rolled out regionally in stages, starting with municipalities that are able to do so.
In response to these circumstances, Shibuya City moved ahead of other municipalities by launching the Shibuya Extracurricular Activity Reform Project in November 2021. With the cooperation of local companies and organizations, it carried out a trial program of joint extracurricular activities open to students from all eight municipal junior high schools in the city, and full-scale operations began in FY2022. At present, six of the city’s eight municipal junior high schools have established a system in which instruction is provided by external personnel, and the city is actively promoting the regional rollout of extracurricular activities, including increasing the number of extracurriculars students can join this fiscal year.

We have been involved in this project since the trial implementation in 2021, and last year, the Digital Creative Division was responsible for all classes throughout the year. In a survey of participants, satisfaction exceeded 90%, with comments such as, “I took the Romi class last year as well, but this year there was more content involving ChatGPT, which made it feel fresh and enjoyable,” “It was fun to think about the design, layout, and how things should move,” and “I had never created or edited a video before, but I’m glad I got to enjoy it with the other members of my group.” In addition, because we assigned many group-based projects last year, when we asked students what they liked most about the extracurricular activities, “interaction with teammates” ranked first, ahead of “skill improvement.”

This year as well, we will actively incorporate group work to encourage active communication among students, while providing content that makes learning enjoyable.

■Details of Support for This Fiscal Year

We will handle all sessions of the Digital Creative Club. Across three categories, AI, Graphic Design, and Video Production, we will run 12 extracurricular sessions led by our employees.

Planned Program Overview
Content
・Introduction to Digital Creativity (1 session)
Learn what digital creativity is and how the skills you gain in this extracurricular activity can be useful in the real world. The program will also include a tour of MIXI’s office, where the activities will take place.

・Program Conversations with the Conversational AI Robot Romi (2 sessions)
Use the programming tool Romi Scenario Editor to try programming conversations with Romi, the conversational AI robot developed by MIXI.

・Graphic Design (2 sessions)
Let’s try using design to communicate what you want to say. Use elements like color, shape, size, and text to express your own ideas and images.

・Video Production (7 sessions)
Turn your ideas into videos! Through video production, learn how to get your message across to your audience.

Schedule
Wednesdays from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM, from July to December 2025
*Except during the summer and winter holiday periods.

Location
MIXI Office (36F, Shibuya Scramble Square, 2-24-12 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo)

Maximum Number of Participants
Up to 30

Implementation Details
https://shibuyasports.com/digital-creative/ (Japanese only)

This fiscal year, as part of our sustainability activities, we will continue participating in this project and will also provide a wide range of IT education support by leveraging our resources, including support for programming education at public junior high schools in Shibuya City and the provision of a special programming curriculum to some private junior high schools in Shibuya City.