■The iU is now open. Six months have passed since that time.

It has been six months since iU, also known as the Professional University of Information and Management for Innovation, opened.

I had the opportunity to issue a report online to our 250 partner companies and 300 visiting faculty members.

This is a university that fosters professionals industry experts who can usher in innovation through information, that is, ICT, in the domain of management, that is, business.

Linking these ideas together gives us Professional University of Information and Management for Innovation

Its formal name is iU. But that name alone is too short for formal approval, so we went with Japan's longest name instead.

It was the first university in the world to include innovation in its name.

But it's long, so the name is ultimately iU.

We are implementing five key points.

1. Utilize ICT, business, and English.

Have a curriculum available nowhere else.

2. Learn "at" companies.

This is a university, but provides the context offered by companies.

All students intern for half a year.

3. Create new things "with" companies

Eighty percent of the 27 faculty members are from the industry.

Professionals teach the student body.

There are already 250 partner companies. And that number is still growing.

4. Thorough online education.

The school opened online due to COVID-19, but we had made the necessary preparations, so there was no confusion.

By contrast, the campus is dedicated to real-world activities such as business development, manufacturing, and the like.

Many universities are currently closed, but iU will open starting in June.

However, classes continue to be online. Students are taking classes via their computers here and there from different places.

5. Two sites in Tokyo.

The main school building is near Tokyo Skytree in Sumida Ward. It's an open environment without walls.

A satellite campus is located at Takeshiba in Minato Ward. It's an industry-academia collaboration special zone for smart cities.

The SoftBank headquarters is on the upper floor, and we will pursue work on 5G, robots, and AI facilities together.

Minister Takuya Hirai has requested that we cooperate with the Digital Agency.

We have already achieved the above five points. This alone is revolutionary, but we are taking on five more challenges.

1. Visiting professors: 100.

A pool of talent. If you set a goal of 100 people, visiting professors will bring their friends. Sometimes the students bring new talent in.

Now it's 300 people.

Since there are 200 students in a given grade, the university now has more professors than students.

2. Everyone joins the company.

Create the i Co., Ltd. where everyone can enroll as employees. Everyone earns money to pay their tuition fees.

3. Everyone starts their own business.

All students take on the challenge of starting a business at least once in their four year program. It's likely a world first.

If everyone succeeds in starting a business, the employment rate would be zero.

That's the goal: everyone an owner out of college.

But 90% will likely fail. Failing is more likely to lead to learning.

You could call it Failure University.

4. Special education zones.

Takeshiba CiP has been certified as a National Strategic Special Zone, but the main school building in Sumida also intends to aim for special zone designation.

Special zone could be a radio zone where special radio waves can be used, a copyright-free archival zone, a special zone where robots operate, and a special visa zone for international students.

5. Overseas partnerships.

Promote partnerships with overseas universities and create passports that allow for traveling back and forth.

Various projects are already underway.

Entrepreneurial support. Taking action through the "Super Entrepreneurship School."

Build communities around universities, technical colleges, and high schools. Match entrepreneurs, consultants, and VCs.

E-sports. In collaboration with the Japan esports Union and other groups, we launched the "Super E-Sports School," a community of schools from universities to elementary schools, along with researchers.

iU recommends club activities such as e-sports.

What I want to create myself is an athletic club.

By exercise here I don't mean sports, but rather student movements about exercising their rights.

Students, as stakeholders, could proactively suggest ideas to university management.

The club would provide helmets, masks, and sunglasses. However, we would not provide them clubs, as that would incite violence.

Let the students create the university as they see fit.

Approval was delayed, but the first year was quite competitive. And there were many unexpected students.

Some who quit college:

Several students quit Keio University or other prestigious schools to join us.

Existing schools must have failed to satisfy them.

Parent-child enrollment:

A father and son and a mother and son have enrolled.

How surprising to see such demand. Should we make a course for families?

"I persuaded my parents to let me join."

That is what many of the students have to say. Sorry to the parents. But also, thank you. How promising.

"Let us start a business already."

Our original design was to let them intern as juniors and start a business in their senior year, but some students wanted to start a business in year one, and some already have.

The students are a lot more interesting than I expected.

I have two requests to the companies and guest professors.

First, have fun with it.

You can use the university. When I was at MIT and Stanford, companies made liberal use of the university. In Japan, things are cut off.

Evaluate it as you would.

I hope people will sharply rebuke our flaws. This will improve us for the better. In that way, I want to grow it into a strong community.