About TTA

The TOMODACHI Toshiba Science & Technology Leadership Academy is an annual one-week, cross-cultural Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) exchange and leadership program for 16 high school students and eight teachers from Japan and the U.S.

In August, program participants from both countries will work together in Tokyo to develop a disaster-resilient, smart community of the future. With counsel from Toshiba engineers and a visit to the Toshiba Smart Community building, the students and teachers will work in teams to develop proposed solutions to these problems using learning experiences that are central to Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the engineering design process.



The academy links the TOMODACHI Initiative’s roots in disaster recovery to Toshiba’s founding commitment to technological innovation, and passion for science and technology education. It is part of Toshiba’s support for the TOMODACHI initiative, a public-private partnership, born out of support for Japan’s recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake, that invests in the next generation of Japanese and American leaders through educational and cultural exchanges as well as leadership programs.

The program is designed to foster closer ties between U.S. and Japanese teachers and students, to nurture a strong sense of STEM literacy, and to inspire the use of science and technology to address some of the world’s most complex issues in the future. Their Japanese counterparts will be separately selected from high school students and teachers who promote strong achievements in science and mathematics education and international student exchanges.