In the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution, many global companies are accelerating the expansion of new business areas by integrating new paradigms.
Recently, as the value of intellectual property (IP) has increased, the ‘entertainment’ sector, essential for acquiring new IP and expanding media content, has been gaining attention. In fact, leading domestic companies are actively trying to enter the entertainment business.
As a result, many people striving to realize their dreams in the entertainment field, identified as a new growth engine for the future, have increased. However, due to the limited size of the domestic entertainment market, interest in global entertainment has surged recently.
In particular, Japan, which has expanded the horizon of the entertainment sector and actively developed its business earlier than Korea, is evaluated to have a more systematic system and talent development programs in place.
In this regard, the Japanese entertainment academy ‘Toho Gakuen (東放學園, Toho Gakuen),’ which has accumulated high recognition domestically, is attracting attention as it plans to recruit international students for 2025. Toho Gakuen, which has produced numerous outstanding talents in broadcasting, music, and entertainment industries through annual international student recruitment, originated from the education business division of TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting System) and is a vocational school born from the entertainment field.
Founded in 1969 as the successor of the ‘TBS Computer School’ established by TBS, the Toho Gakuen educational corporation has played a key role in nurturing talent in the Japanese entertainment sector, producing over 60,000 graduates centered around the entertainment industry since its establishment.
In fact, most graduates, including talents such as TIME MACHINESANGOU, Kanako Yanagihara, voice actor Toshiki Masuda, and film director Yukihiko Tsutsumi, are active in the industry, supporting Toho Gakuen’s reputation.
The Toho Gakuen educational corporation consists of four vocational schools: Toho Gakuen Vocational School, Toho Gakuen Film, Animation & CG Vocational School, Toho Gakuen Sound Vocational School, and Tokyo Announce Academy Vocational School. The departments recruiting international students are all two-year specialized courses that cultivate expertise through curricula covering both theory and practice.
Graduating from Toho Gakuen through the study abroad program grants the title of ‘Senmonshi’ (specialist), enabling employment in Japan as well as equipping graduates with essential capabilities to work in entertainment industries worldwide.
Applications for international student recruitment for 2025 at Japan’s Toho Gakuen are limited to those with Japanese language proficiency sufficient to understand vocational school classes. Detailed admission guidelines will be available later on the official Toho Gakuen website.
To minimize the burden on international broadcasting students, Toho Gakuen offers various scholarship benefits, including tuition waivers upon admission, and operates a job and debut support office based on a graduate network to provide a stable employment environment after graduation.
A representative from the Toho Gakuen Career Support Center, which forms an organic network with industry companies and collects and provides extensive information, stated, “We are actively gathering vast information targeting Asia, including companies in Japan that actively hire international students, as well as companies in Korea and China. We support employment through school briefing sessions where hiring managers are invited, on-campus auditions held with many entertainment productions, and other admission guidance events.”
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