In a belated attempt to get up to speed in the field of e-learning, Japan's educational institutes and companies are scrambling to offer online education programs and cash in on the burgeoning field.
In contrast, the U.S. education industry centering on venture businesses and universities has grown into a market worth several hundreds of billions of yen thanks to e-learning programs. Nearly 70 percent of U.S. universities reportedly offer remote teaching courses.
On the home front, Yasuhiko Ikebe, a professor at the University of Aizu in Aizu Wakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, has developed teaching software that enables students to easily study determinant algebra in English.