Promotion Measures for National Youth Education Facilities (Report)
This summarizes the report from the "Study Group on Promotion Measures for National Youth Education Facilities" by experts announced by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology on August 6, Reiwa 7 (2025), regarding the future direction and specific reform policies for national youth education facilities.
Current Situation Recognition as Premise
The environment surrounding national youth education facilities is undergoing significant changes. Declining user numbers pose serious challenges, with notable decreases in school usage and increases in online training and meetings. Additionally, reduced experiential opportunities for children, evolution of digital environments in society, impacts of population decline particularly aging society, facility deterioration, and worsening financial conditions are recognized as important challenges.
In response to these challenges, clarifying initiatives as national centers for youth education and implementing measures to promote facility utilization have become urgent. Reconsideration of future national facility directions is absolutely essential.
Report Framework and Reform Directions
The report presents four major reform directions. First, strengthening functions as national centers for youth education is emphasized, requiring selection of necessary facilities and functions from corporate management perspectives, formulating overall strategies conscious of social issues, and organizational culture reform. Necessary initiatives include developing pioneering efforts, practical research, cabinet personnel training, and international exchange.
Second, as promotion measures for national youth education facilities, providing experiential opportunities utilizing professional knowledge, introducing program and marketing perspectives, and ensuring proactive involvement of headquarters in regional facility enhancement are required. Necessary initiatives include providing region-specific programs, enriching direct instruction, acquiring new user segments, converting to attractive facilities, and setting appropriate usage fees.
Infrastructure Management Implementation
The third reform direction positions thorough infrastructure management of national youth education facilities. Through proper infrastructure management implementation, transition from reactive to preventive maintenance is sought, with urgent response needed for technical staff shortages. Important challenges include confirming facility (hardware) necessity according to aging responses, thorough maintenance to maintain facility cleanliness, and considering private sector utilization in infrastructure management.
Specific Operational Reform Policies
Fourth, as operational reforms for national youth education facilities, reconsideration of national facility functions and scale, reconsideration of national facility operations themselves, introducing management perspectives in institutional operations, considering private sector utilization in facility renewal and operations, and streamlining management operations (rule improvements, DX implementation, etc.) are presented.
Future Specific Facility Reorganization Plans
As particularly important reforms, specific policies regarding future national facility directions are shown. To strengthen national youth education functions, national facilities serving hub functions must be identified by certain areas, with reviews of facility numbers, scale, and accommodation capacity, function optimization, and consideration of functional differentiation through reorganization.
To conduct performance evaluations contributing to management improvement, thorough goal management systems for overall youth promotion are required. Setting hub facilities and considering functional differentiation must be promptly initiated, with function strengthening, downsizing, and reorganization promoted sequentially from facilities reaching conclusions. Furthermore, obtaining specific conclusions regarding functional differentiation of all facilities during the next medium-term goal period (R8-R12) is clearly stated.