Sports × Children Even that major corporation has finally entered! Sports are driving the early childhood education market!

The SPOLUTION team is a solution unit attempting to create new business opportunities by viewing sports content not just as media content, but also as a solution. Team members will introduce future sports-related business opportunities from their respective perspectives in a relay column format.

Hello everyone. I'm Kahei Watanabe from the SPOLUTION team.

Thank you for visiting.

In this third installment, I'd like to discuss emerging business opportunities at the intersection of sports and children.

Sports and physical activities rank high among the activities parents want their children to learn!

What comes to mind when you think of extracurricular activities for children, especially preschoolers?
Looking at the actual popularity rankings, it looks like this.

In fact, physical activities and sports like gymnastics and swimming rank highly.

Our survey conducted late last year among married men and women in Tokyo with preschool-aged children also revealed parents' strong interest in physical activity and sports-related lessons.

Yes, against this backdrop of parental demand, physical activity and sports have been gaining momentum in the early childhood education market in recent years.

Right now, there's a real reevaluation happening from an "educational" perspective about the value of physical activity and sports, and a new market is beginning to sprout.

Even "sports kindergartens" have appeared!

Various playersare developing early childhood education servicesutilizing sports

The market size for children's sports education services is nearly 460 billion yen. Even in today's world, said to still be recovering from recession, it's a promising market with an average annual growth rate of 2%.

Just as the term "6-pocket" (meaning six wallets per child: parents and both sets of grandparents) was replaced by "10-pocket" (adding both sets of aunts and uncles), the declining birthrate, rising late marriage rates, and increasing non-marriage rates mean education spending per child is steadily increasing and diversifying.

With the gift tax exemption introduced in the 2013 tax reform, this education spending is expected to increase further, promising continued market growth.

Movements within this market, particularly in the area of physical education and sports instruction for young children, have become very active in recent years.

For example, "sports kindergartens" have emerged, placing sports at the core of their curriculum. These facilities offer daily sports classes on dedicated grounds and in gymnasiums, along with a wide range of practical activities and outdoor experiences involving various sports and physical activities such as skiing, skating, and swimming.

By clearly differentiating themselves through sports, these kindergartens have succeeded in attracting many children, even amidst the competition for students among kindergartens and nurseries facing declining birthrates.

Major sports clubs are also leveraging their facilities to offer uniquely developed exercise and gymnastics programs for young children, as well as parent-child swimming programs, using these as tools for customer acquisition and retention.

There are also companies providing private tutoring services for physical activities and sports.

While most players are still small-scale, over ten companies have entered this market in the last decade. While tutoring often conjures images of academic instruction, we've now entered an era where one-on-one physical activity coaching is commonplace.

Furthermore, physical activity and sports are actually being utilized as an educational tool for children with developmental disorders. A certain gymnastics studio in Tokyo offering original exercise programs for children with developmental disorders has seen such a positive response that there is a waiting list of around 100 children.

That major education company has finally entered the early childhood physical education market!

Will Gakken's "Little Athlete Club" become the eye of the storm?!

While various players and services have been emerging in the early childhood physical education market, the major education company Gakken has finally made its move.

Gakken's " Little Athlete Club" offers an original exercise program developed collaboratively by three parties: Gakken, professional trainers deeply knowledgeable about the mechanisms of improving children's motor skills, and active early childhood physical education instructors. Its philosophy is "to enable all children to enjoy any exercise or sport energetically and to the fullest."

The program's development concept isn't about elite training; instead, it focuses on "cultivating children with good motor skills" and "fostering children who love movement and sports and can enthusiastically tackle anything." This approach is sure to catch the attention of parents.

Furthermore, it introduces a highly innovative concept: actual instruction is provided by professional trainers trained in early childhood education.

Currently, there are very few exercise programs on the market that incorporate such scientific approaches used in training. "Little Athlete Club" is likely to become one of the sports-related extracurricular activities to watch in the future.

Gakken's launch of this new early childhood physical education business clearly demonstrates the business potential in this field.

The Solution Team has supported this "Little Athlete Club" from the initial idea and planning stages.

Why sports for children? Because sports can directly tap into human instincts and fundamental emotions

Why has physical activity and sports become so widely utilized in early childhood education?

Why has physical activity and sports become so widely utilized in early childhood education?

Of course, a major reason is the alignment between the business needs of kindergartens/daycare centers and the parenting needs of mothers and fathers.

However, a key perspective to keep in mind is this: just as watching or playing sports ourselves provides various stimuli and evokes emotions like excitement and joy, moving the body through exercise and sports can directly engage the instincts and emotions of children who need abundant stimulation for their growth.

Education through movement and sports is the polar opposite of cramming education, which relentlessly fills or bombards the mind with words and knowledge. Instead, it's experiential education that stimulates human instincts—like laughter, tears, and joy—and draws out and expands the inherent potential within people.

This is precisely why sports are gaining acceptance in the early childhood education market, creating new business opportunities through the combination of sports and children.

The active incorporation of sports in early childhood education suggests its potential as a solution that directly engages human instincts and emotions.

Tokyo was officially selected as the host city for the 2020 Olympics.

Going forward, sports should become increasingly prominent in this field of early childhood education.

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★ What is the "Sporolution" Team?
It is an internal unit within Dentsu Inc. that approaches sports content not merely as "media assets," but as "solutions" to address business challenges and project objectives, and plans accordingly.
The team brings together diverse talents including strategic planners, promotion planners, copywriters, art directors, technologists, consultants, and producers, all with extensive experience in sports planning. Through our Solution Director system, we provide not just "ideas for expression," but also "ideas for solutions," all under one roof.