Japan to Open Its First Esports High School in Spring

High school just got a lot more interesting.

Japan is welcoming its first-ever Esports high school, named Esports Koutou Gakuin, in April, with its official site now up and running featuring plenty of photos from inside the building.

As Kotaku reports, the school will be located in Shibuya and will be funded by Japanese telecoms company NTT’s esports outfit, as well as that of Japanese soccer club Tokyo Verdy. Kids shouldn’t expect your average teachers, either, as professional esports players, members of NTT, and Tokyo Verdy will make up the school’s staff.

Students will compete and learn on 40 Galleria XA7C-R37 gaming PCs with an Intel Core i7-11700, as well as Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 graphics cards. They’ll be playing first-person shooters, third-person shooter, real-time strategy, and multiplayer online battle arena games. And for a better look at how things will work, the school’s first open house will be kicking off in January.

Of course, it isn’t all just fun and games, as students will also be tasked with learning standard Japanese high school curriculum on top of esports. Still, most students will be prepared to enter careers as esports pros, streamers, VR creators, programmers, game writers, and game designers.