In September 2020, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology put together a reform plan to rectify teachers’ long working hours. The plan put together a reform plan to transfer club activities on holidays at public junior high schools and high schools to the community. It has decided to gradually transition to a system in which local human resources will take charge of these activities as “community activities” from 2023 onwards. The Sports Agency and the Agency for Cultural Affairs have a history of working to reduce the burden on teachers, with a three-year “reform promotion period” from 2023 onwards. The Sports Agency and the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ expert council have come to evaluate that the transfer of holidays to the community is progressing steadily. On the other hand, many local governments say that the reform is still in progress. An even more difficult issue has been proposed by the national expert council. This national expert council put together a reform plan to expand the “community transfer” that is currently being carried out on holidays to weekdays. Local governments were presented with a reform plan that calls for the six years from 2026 to 2031 to be the “reform implementation period” and for the activities to be expanded to weekdays.
Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, is ahead of the curve in the “reform promotion period.” In October 2021, Shibuya Ward established Shibuya United as a place to accommodate club activities on holidays. Approximately 220 students from eight schools in Shibuya Ward are registered with the organization. The joint club activities here are very different from regular club activities. There are no school teachers at Shibuya United’s joint dance club activities. Professional dancers instruct the joint dance club activities. In addition to dance, Shibuya Ward is making the most of the benefits of Shibuya, that various sports and cultures come together. In cooperation with local companies and club teams, a total of about 20 instructors are secured to run this organization.
In welfare facilities in Scandinavia, scenes can be seen that people of all ages and genders make effective use of the space in welfare facilities. This is a method of designing the so-called welfare facility and school adjacent to each other. In the shared space for the elderly and children, you can see scenes of the elderly and children engaged in lively activities. This is that the idea of transferring club activities to the community emerges. These are hobby activities that bring together people of all ages and genders. I have listed a list of activities that are held at community centers and private lessons. There are more than 50 clubs, including dance, table tennis, choir, gymnastics, karate, calligraphy, computers, senryu, tanka, ink painting, doll making, and exercises to maintain physical strength. At the center of supporting these activities are people called caretakers. These activities are not limited to weekends, but are also held throughout the mornings and afternoons on weekdays. If we could create a service that matches the 50 club activities with the sports and cultural activities that children want to participate in, we could create an interesting system for transferring to the community.
