Komatsu Summer School

Let's Unfold the Map of the Future in Hokuriku

Komatsu Summer School (KSS) is a Japanese-English bilingual summer school for high school students. 

Students spend a week with high school and university students from Japan and abroad.

KSS provides students with an opportunity to discover a new side of themselves and think about their future.

This summer, why don’t you think about yourself and your future with your best friends?

THE REASON FOR HOSTING THE PROGRAM IN KOMATSU CITY

Komatsu City has a rich natural environment including Lake Kiba as well as a stone and gemstone culture designated as a Japanese heritage site. Throughout its long history nature, tradition, and industry have been preserved and developed to this day including kabuki, traditional handicrafts, and industries such as Komatsu Ltd.


In addition, Komatsu City is actively promoting international exchange beyond national borders and has developed exchange programs with various cities around the world, so it is a place where people are able understand different cultures.


In such a relaxed learning environment, high school students from various backgrounds, university students, staff, and working adults gather in Komatsu City to host the Komatsu Summer School.

Diverse program offerings

At KSS, we provide input and output through a variety of programs to help students deepen their own thinking. Japanese high schoolers have the opportunity to take liberal arts classes in English from overseas university students. There is a forum where working adults active in various fields in Japan and around the world are invited as lecturers to talk about their lives up until now and share their thoughts.

 

Komatsu cultural experiences such as applying Kabuki makeup and painting on Kutani ware provide participants with an opportunity to meet local people. The SDGs workshop will be held in collaboration with the United Nations University Institute for Advanced Studies on Sustainability, Ishikawa-Kanazawa Operating Unit (UNU-IAS-OUIK). There will be many other programs created to maximize your learning and self-awareness.

Collaboration with the local community

The Komatsu Summer School Executive Committee has been awarded the 34th annual Japan Foundation Global Citizenship Prize for 2018. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the many companies, organizations, and individuals who have continued to support us since our establishment. 


We would like to thank all of them for endorsing our principles and supporting our organization.

KSS Features

Seminar

Small group classes focus on "dialogue" to foster critical thinking. Academic classes are taught in English by an overseas and Japanese university student pair.

Komatsu Cultural Experience

Go to Komatsu and experience the long-standing traditional culture with all your five senses. It is not just a passive learning environment, but it is a time when you get to learn by freely using your entire body.

Forum

You will be able to draw a future you have not foreseen by interacting with adults you normally would not meet. We invite people who are active in various fields to give lectures.

House System

During the duration of the summer school, you will spend time in a family-like group called a "house" which consists of approximately five high school students, one house leader (HL), one seminar leader (SL), and several other Executive Committee members (EC).

The Voices of Past Participants

What is the meaning of KSS, you ask?

Greetings From the Director, Chair, and Vice-Chair

Menghe Xu

Board of Directors Representative

Know Others and Know Yourself

My name is Menghe Xu and I serve as the representative for the Komatsu Summer School Executive Committee.  

 

Since 2014, Komatsu Summer School has been providing high school participants with the opportunity to “know others and know themselves.”

 

When I was 18 years old, I left China and came to Japan to study abroad. Because I had grown up in a closed community, I believed that there was a “right” answer to my path so I tried my best to follow the course that was laid out for me. Therefore, when I came to Japan and was put in a free environment called “college” and saw so many options, I became confused about how I should live.

 

That is when I came across the Komatsu Summer School. In 2014, the first year of the program, I participated as a university staff member and met university students and high school school students from diverse backgrounds as well as working adults who are active and passionate in different fields. This was the first time I began to think, “What do I want to do?”, “How do I want to use my strengths to contribute to the world?”  and had a lively learning and living experience. 

 

 

Later, as I met various people, I realized that there were many people who were bound by the “right” answers to their path, just as I had been. As a program that is in a rural area of Japan, I want to create a place where high school students can have encounters and opportunities, and let them them know that life is full of choices and it is fun to live on your own terms. I also dream that the people who were impacted by Komatsu Summer School form a large circle and have a positive influence on the world. 

 

 

This year marks the seventh year of the Komatsu Summer School which has been supported by many people in Japan and abroad. From the benefits we have received from you, we will do our best in supporting the young people who will create the future and contribute to society.

 

 

We would like to ask for your continued support into the future. 

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Ayuto Kusukawa

Executive Committee Chair

Enjoy your way of life

Hello, I am Ayuto Kusugawa, this year’s KSS Executive Committee Chairman.


The following two problems are the most common concerns among young people in recent years: Japan has the highest suicide rate among young people, and many have lost their confidence and self-worth. This is a big problem, as without self-confidence, it is difficult to try new things and challenge oneself. Some may turn to failure as a reason why not to attempt new things in the first place. I have contributed to KSS in order to address these issues and provide high schoolers a space to solve these problems.

 

At KSS, many university students are working hard to provide the best they can to be a helping hand to such high school students. I encourage you to join KSS and build the most fun and memorable week of summer this year!

 

Yurino Takaichi

 
Executive Committee Vice-Chair
 

An “Extraordinary” Experience at Komatsu

Hello! Welcome to Komatsu Summer School! I am Yurino Takaichi, the Vice-Chair for KSS 2023.


10 years ago, KSS began on one summer day in Komatsu City. I’m very happy to be involved in Komatsu, my hometown, where I was born and raised, and to be able to celebrate its 10th anniversary in this position.
Our Executive Committee specifies “High School Students First” as a basis for our work efforts. Therefore we ensure high school students are motivated to challenge themselves without hesitation, and provide an environment that allows recognizing the values of both successes and failures.

 

Additionally, working adults, university students and high school students of various roots and backgrounds will gather in Komatsu. Diversifying the kinds of people you meet leads to recognizing your potential and a new side of yourself. Face yourself, your community, and your world. I invite you to explore this “extraordinary” aspects of your life in Komatsu with us. The things that you see as “extraordinary” are the very opportunities you can throw yourself into to challenge yourself.Each and every one of our Executive Committee members are excited to meet all of you!

Our Partners

2022 Track Record

The following is a list of companies and organizations that have supported Komatsu Summer School 2022.

Assistance

Special Collaboration

Sponsors

Supporters