Japanese school to foster 'Asian' thinking

Asia may be driving growth in the world economy but a Japanese businesswoman behind an innovative new school believes the region is over-reliant on Western-style leadership.

Lin Kobayashi hopes her foundation outside Tokyo will help change that by breeding a wave of political and business leaders, but with what she sees as a more "Asian" way of thinking.

Building work on the International School of Asia, Karuizawa (ISAK) began in September. The launch of classes, all taught in English, is planned for 2014 making it Japan's first international boarding high school.

Kobayashi, 38, a former investment analyst at Morgan Stanley, said the school will bring together students from a wide range of cultures and socio-economic backgrounds, with scholarships for poor students funded by donations.

But she said she wasn't aiming to simply rival elite schools such as Britain's Harrow or Dulwich College, which have set up Western-style campuses in places such as Hong Kong, mainland China and Thailand.

And she added she wanted to change what she sees as an assumption in Asia that it was preferable to seek out education systems in which Western-style leadership was taught.