Winning Teams Announced for the 12th Mynavi Career Koshien, One of Japan's Largest Business Idea Contests for High School Students

Mynavi Corporation (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director and President: Shunsuke Awai) held the final round of the '12th Mynavi Career Koshien,' a business idea contest for high school students nationwide, on March 14 (Sat) and 15 (Sun), 2026, at Otemachi Mitsui Hall (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo).

'Mynavi Career Koshien' is an inquiry-based learning program in the form of a business idea contest where high school students form teams of two to four to tackle challenges set by participating companies. Since its inception in 2014, the number of participants has grown annually, and this 12th edition saw a record-breaking 3,151 teams and 11,668 high school students from across the country participate.

As a result of the judging, the team 'No Side' from Rugby School Japan/Waseda High School (representing Mizkan) won in the 'Breakthrough Category,' and the team '≒0' (Nearly Equal Zero) from Shibuya Education Gakuen Shibuya High School (representing Lotte) won in the 'Innovation Category.' Both teams also garnered support from the audience, winning the Audience Award, marking a double victory for both teams.

The theme for this 12th edition was 'Borderless Age.' Based on this overarching theme, each participating company set its own specific challenge. High school students who passed the document screening, video screening, and semi-finals teamed up with their respective companies to advance to the finals, where they presented ideas they had refined over more than six months within a 10-minute limit. This year, the competition was divided into two categories: 'Breakthrough' and 'Innovation,' with winners, runners-up, and audience award recipients selected for each.

In the final round, the 12 representative teams selected by the companies and organizations were divided into two categories of six teams each to deliver their presentations. Each team had 10 minutes for their presentation and 5 minutes for Q&A, showcasing the ideas they had developed over half a year. The judging was based on six common criteria: 'information gathering,' 'theme analysis,' 'feasibility,' 'sustainability,' 'social impact,' and 'originality,' combined with secondary evaluations (relative) from judges and audience votes. The winning teams were awarded a trophy and a prize of 1 million yen in overseas travel vouchers.

■ Winning Teams

＜Winner＞

'Breakthrough Category' Winner

Mizkan Representative: Team 'No Side' (Rugby School Japan / Waseda High School)