Next-Generation After-School Program 'ECC Mirai After School' Born, Fostering English Proficiency and Future-Living Skills with Digital and AI
ECC Co., Ltd. will open 'ECC Mirai After School,' a next-generation after-school program utilizing digital and AI, in Minami-Kasai on July 1, 2026. This program offers hybrid education that cultivates English proficiency, future-living skills, and interpersonal skills, with a goal of nationwide expansion by April 2027.
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- 📰 Published: May 1, 2026 at 03:28
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ECC Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Kita-ku, Osaka; Representative Director and President: Masahiro Hanabusa; hereinafter, ECC), a comprehensive education and lifelong learning institution, will grand open 'ECC Mirai After School' (hereinafter, this school), a next-generation after-school program that fosters skills for living in the coming era by learning across grades and connecting with the world, as a directly managed school in Minami-Kasai on Wednesday, July 1, 2026. Moving forward, we will expand nationwide by recruiting FC加盟スクール (franchise schools) for an opening in April 2027.
Furthermore, this school will offer a new way of spending after-school hours through a hybrid approach of 'English proficiency x Future-living skills x Interpersonal skills,' utilizing digital and AI.
■ Background and Concept
Based on ECC's mission to 'foster 'true international citizens' who can promote exchange and mutual understanding among people across nations,' this school is not merely a childcare facility. It adopts 'After school where children learn in English, think with friends, and create' as its main concept, integrating 'Japan's culture of mutual learning' where children of different ages, grades, and backgrounds learn together, with 'global education' to cultivate skills for living in the coming era.
After-school hours will be transformed from mere childcare into a 'place of learning connected to the future' from the following five perspectives:
▶ Learning across grades: An environment where children teach and learn from each other.
▶ Connecting with the world: Daily experiential learning using English as a tool.
▶ Fostering 'Future Power': The ability to think, choose, express oneself, and collaborate with others.
▶ Future-connected skills: Basic abilities to utilize digital and AI.
▶ Cultivating social skills: Habitual greetings, manners, and understanding others in daily life.
■ Three Pillars of Education: Maximizing 'Living Skills' in Three Domains
This school adopts the following three domains as its three pillars of education, and by combining them, we will support children's growth from multiple angles.
ECC Mirai After School 'Three Pillars of Education'
◇ English proficiency (Learning Domain): Daily immersion environment for English.
◇ Future-living skills (Thinking Domain): The ability to think for oneself and make decisions.
◇ Interpersonal skills (Action/Behavior Domain): Sense of responsibility and cooperativeness in group living.
■ Features and Value Proposition of Each Domain in the 'Three Pillars of Education'
◇ English proficiency (Learning Domain): Making every day a learning opportunity 'using' English.
After-school hours themselves are designed as an immersion environment.
● 'Daily exposure' English environment:
Creating a space where English naturally enters children's ears through background music and staff's encouragement.
● Live streaming by native instructors:
Connecting in real-time with foreign instructors to develop 'usable English skills' through exposure to authentic English.
● Habitual basic learning:
Daily analog basic learning such as reading aloud and writing will also be conducted to build a foundation for learning in junior high school, high school, and beyond.
◇ Future-living skills (Thinking Domain): Thinking, choosing, and expressing oneself.
Instead of searching for correct answers, the process itself is regarded as learning, and a cycle of thinking is acquired.
● Proactive thinking:
Emphasizing time to form one's own hypotheses without demanding immediate answers. Utilizing ICT teaching materials to accumulate 'thinking experiences.'
● Collaborative thinking:
Accumulating experience in updating ideas through dialogue and presentations, incorporating others' perspectives.
● Judgment and decision-making:
Cultivating the ability to choose for oneself and explain the reasons in one's own words when faced with problems without a single correct answer.
◇ Interpersonal skills (Action/Behavior Domain): Behavioral patterns and sense of responsibility in group living.
Daily life where children of different ages gather is treated as an educational setting to foster social skills.
● Cooperativeness and responsibility:
Naturally acquiring rules and manners in group activities and developing the ability to fulfill one's role.
● Understanding others and flexibility:
Cultivating flexibility to accept diverse values and adjust one's actions according to the situation and others.
■ ECC Mirai After School's 'Future-Living Skills' Training Program
To foster children's ability to think and express themselves, this school has jointly developed an ECC-exclusive original curriculum in collaboration with Sony Global Education, utilizing their learning app 'Logic Lab.'
In this curriculum, children use tablets to gradually engage in learning activities of researching, thinking, and expressing. Generative AI will also be utilized as a tool to deepen thinking in a safe and secure environment. Since it can be approached according to each child's interests and understanding, regardless of age or grade, children can enjoy developing their thinking skills.
ECC Mirai After School
For more details on ECC Mirai After School, please check here.
PDF version press release:
d16929-208-14e31091a08
Furthermore, this school will offer a new way of spending after-school hours through a hybrid approach of 'English proficiency x Future-living skills x Interpersonal skills,' utilizing digital and AI.
■ Background and Concept
Based on ECC's mission to 'foster 'true international citizens' who can promote exchange and mutual understanding among people across nations,' this school is not merely a childcare facility. It adopts 'After school where children learn in English, think with friends, and create' as its main concept, integrating 'Japan's culture of mutual learning' where children of different ages, grades, and backgrounds learn together, with 'global education' to cultivate skills for living in the coming era.
After-school hours will be transformed from mere childcare into a 'place of learning connected to the future' from the following five perspectives:
▶ Learning across grades: An environment where children teach and learn from each other.
▶ Connecting with the world: Daily experiential learning using English as a tool.
▶ Fostering 'Future Power': The ability to think, choose, express oneself, and collaborate with others.
▶ Future-connected skills: Basic abilities to utilize digital and AI.
▶ Cultivating social skills: Habitual greetings, manners, and understanding others in daily life.
■ Three Pillars of Education: Maximizing 'Living Skills' in Three Domains
This school adopts the following three domains as its three pillars of education, and by combining them, we will support children's growth from multiple angles.
ECC Mirai After School 'Three Pillars of Education'
◇ English proficiency (Learning Domain): Daily immersion environment for English.
◇ Future-living skills (Thinking Domain): The ability to think for oneself and make decisions.
◇ Interpersonal skills (Action/Behavior Domain): Sense of responsibility and cooperativeness in group living.
■ Features and Value Proposition of Each Domain in the 'Three Pillars of Education'
◇ English proficiency (Learning Domain): Making every day a learning opportunity 'using' English.
After-school hours themselves are designed as an immersion environment.
● 'Daily exposure' English environment:
Creating a space where English naturally enters children's ears through background music and staff's encouragement.
● Live streaming by native instructors:
Connecting in real-time with foreign instructors to develop 'usable English skills' through exposure to authentic English.
● Habitual basic learning:
Daily analog basic learning such as reading aloud and writing will also be conducted to build a foundation for learning in junior high school, high school, and beyond.
◇ Future-living skills (Thinking Domain): Thinking, choosing, and expressing oneself.
Instead of searching for correct answers, the process itself is regarded as learning, and a cycle of thinking is acquired.
● Proactive thinking:
Emphasizing time to form one's own hypotheses without demanding immediate answers. Utilizing ICT teaching materials to accumulate 'thinking experiences.'
● Collaborative thinking:
Accumulating experience in updating ideas through dialogue and presentations, incorporating others' perspectives.
● Judgment and decision-making:
Cultivating the ability to choose for oneself and explain the reasons in one's own words when faced with problems without a single correct answer.
◇ Interpersonal skills (Action/Behavior Domain): Behavioral patterns and sense of responsibility in group living.
Daily life where children of different ages gather is treated as an educational setting to foster social skills.
● Cooperativeness and responsibility:
Naturally acquiring rules and manners in group activities and developing the ability to fulfill one's role.
● Understanding others and flexibility:
Cultivating flexibility to accept diverse values and adjust one's actions according to the situation and others.
■ ECC Mirai After School's 'Future-Living Skills' Training Program
To foster children's ability to think and express themselves, this school has jointly developed an ECC-exclusive original curriculum in collaboration with Sony Global Education, utilizing their learning app 'Logic Lab.'
In this curriculum, children use tablets to gradually engage in learning activities of researching, thinking, and expressing. Generative AI will also be utilized as a tool to deepen thinking in a safe and secure environment. Since it can be approached according to each child's interests and understanding, regardless of age or grade, children can enjoy developing their thinking skills.
ECC Mirai After School
For more details on ECC Mirai After School, please check here.
PDF version press release:
d16929-208-14e31091a08