The company’s financial position was not good. It wasn’t easy in the first few years after Miyahara became president. ![]() Its motto is “Create solutions beyond your imagination.” Gakken’s behavior guidelines for the 2020s is for its group members to think deeply for people and society, keep on learning, possess passion and speed, harness the power of the individual for the strength of the group, and do not be satisfied with the status quo. The company's publishing business includes children’s books, study aid books, dictionaries, books on travel, science, medicine, gardening, cooking, child-rearing, hobbies, sports, educational and puzzle magazines. In recent years, Tokyo Global Gateway, Chikyu-no-arukikata, IC-NET and others have joined the group. It has expanded into the medical and welfare fields, opening senior residences and group homes for people with dementia. Today, the Gakken Group provides a wide range of services, including home study materials, development of cram schools and Gakken Classrooms as well as educational materials for schools. But he has not lost sight of the core principle of Hideto Furuoka who founded Gakken in 1946 - that “Postwar reconstruction can be achieved only through education.” Miyahara is the company’s sixth president and he says that basic premise remains Gakken’s core philosophy. It’s a book worth reading and contains many stories about the adversities that Miyahara had to face on his way to the top and how he has brought the company to where it is now. “The Japanese-reading population is getting smaller while the English-reading population will increase, so it would be nice to reach more people,” he says. Miyahara has detailed many of his experiences in a recently published book, 逆風に向かう社員になれ (“Being a Challenger Who Can Tackle the Tough Times”). He hopes an English version will be published in the future. He then joined the Kobe branch of Gakken. After graduating from the academy in 1982, Miyahara gave up his career in national defense due to an injury. Later, Miyahara enrolled at the National Defense Academy of Japan where he obtained a pilot’s license (a photo of him proudly standing by a fighter jet is in his office). When I was older, I joined the Cub and Boy Scouts and their activities inspired me.” “I was experiencing adult words as a child. “Over the years, I would listen to the priest's sermons about peace and bible stories,” he recalls. Born in 1959 in Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture, he used to go to a Lutheran church on Sundays with a 10 yen coin given to him by his mother to put in the collection plate. Miyahara has learned many lessons in his life, some beginning when he was as young as three. When the big earthquake hit the Tohoku region in 2011, I made it a point to call every employee in Sendai to reassure them.” Afterwards, I even thought about quitting the company but I couldn’t abandon the teachers, students and my colleagues. “I’ve never forgotten that to this day,” he says. ![]() ![]() What saved the business were donations from franchise teachers and students. ![]() Surprisingly, while the Tokyo headquarters of Gakken distributed 100 million yen to its businesses in Kobe that had been making money at the time, Gakken Classroom was not making a profit, so Miyahara got nothing. “Then in March, people's attention turned to the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, and less attention was paid to Kobe.” “It was the toughest time of my life,” says Miyahara, who has been president and representative director of Gakken Holdings Co Ltd since 2010. Yet in the months that followed, he received no financial help to rebuild from the Tokyo headquarters of Gakken. The earthquake that devastated the city left the business in a precarious position. When Hiroaki Miyahara was managing the Kobe branch of Gakken Classroom (a division of education and welfare services provider Gakken Holdings), in January 1995, he learned a valuable lesson that has remained with him ever since.
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