Programming. This word may bring to mind many things — high-tech computers, complex coding and (for me at least) a mysterious world of unintelligible languages. What it does not normally make me think of are 4-year-olds.
Brian Love and Nobuko Miwa, however, are on a mission to change this. The pair run Coding Lab Japan, which offers a curriculum inspired by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to children ranging in age from 4 to 17.
The concept of Coding Lab was originally dreamed up in Singapore, with a founding establishment opening there around three years ago. Coding Lab Japan, which is owned by Miwa (and has the catchy motto: "Tiny hands, mega minds") opened in Tokyo's Yoyogi district last year and added a second campus in Shirokanedai this summer. It offers English language after-school and weekend coding courses as well as holiday camps.