Gamagori (Japan): Japan opened an elite boarding school modeled on Britain's Eton, hoping to groom future leaders away from video-games, comics and other favorite pastimes of Japanese youth on Saturday.
Some 123 12-year-old boys in crisp black uniforms and ties entered the first class of the Kaiyo Academy in a ceremony with their parents, who will pay $25,500 annually for each student.
The six-year school in central Aichi prefecture was set up amid concern by some parents of slipping standards in Japan, which in 2002 launched a drive to make education more relaxed and cut back on rote learning.
"The Kaiyo Academy aims to nurture people who will be able to lead Japan in the future," said Toyota Motor honorary chairman Shoichiro Toyoda, a driving force behind the project. "I want you to build a base so you can play an active role not only in Japan, but also abroad," Toyoda told the academy, which is based in the same province as the leading automaker.
Toyoda spearheaded an initiative that raised $170 million in corporate donations to build the sprawling school on reclaimed land in a bay. The academy was inspired by Eton College, the prestigious school in England that has trained elites since it’s founding in the 15th century.
"These 123 students are little acorns now. But they will be great trees by the time they graduate in six years," said George Fussey, an Eton biology teacher who will instruct at the Kaiyo Academy for a year.
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