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Good practice Imported

Technovation Girls Japan — Waffle's AI App-Building Programme for Teen Girls

Japan · Tokyo · See the Japan profile · See the Tokyo profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 59% 47/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Tokyo NPO Waffle runs Japan's Technovation Girls chapter, where teen girls build AI-powered apps; in 2025, 440+ students in 88 teams from 44 of 47 prefectures took part, backed by Japan's education ministry and 130+ corporate mentors, addressing a stark ICT gender gap.

>440 students
2025 Japan season participants (2025)
88 teams
2025 season teams (2025)
44 of 47 prefectures
Prefectures represented (2025 season) (2025)
>130 professionals
Volunteer mentors (2025 season) (2025)
3.4 %
Japanese 15-year-old girls interested in an ICT career
~16 %
Japanese women entering higher education choosing engineering
~700 students
FY2023 total participants across all Waffle programmes (FY2023)
179 participants
Waffle Camp participants (FY2023) (FY2023)
Technovation Girls Japan — Waffle's AI App-Building Programme for Teen Girls

Details

Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
Waffle (Technovation Girls Japan)
Period
2023–2025
Keywords
AI literacy, entrepreneurship, girls in STEM, nonprofit

Context

Waffle is a Tokyo-based NPO founded to close Japan's gender gap in technology; it runs the Japanese chapter of Technovation Girls, a global programme in which teenage girls design and pitch an AI-powered app that addresses a real social problem.

Activities

The 2025 Japan season added a dedicated AI course for the first time, backed by Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, with mentoring from more than 130 volunteer professionals at companies including Lenovo Japan, NTT Group and Salesforce Japan.

Results

The 2025 season drew more than 440 students in 88 teams from 44 of Japan's 47 prefectures; finalist AI apps included "DiaLink" (a dementia-prevention diary app, which won the Minister of Education Award), "TorchVision" (visually-impaired navigation) and "Beat the Heat" (heatstroke-risk alerts). In FY2023, Waffle reached roughly 700 students across all its programmes, including a 179-participant "Waffle Camp" spanning 17 cities.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — No public budget figures; relies on volunteer corporate mentors and government/embassy backing.
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years) — Multi-month seasonal programme; the 2025 season culminated in a June 2025 pitch event in Tokyo; grown from roughly 700 total FY2023 participants.
Staffing & skills
Waffle NPO staff, More than 130 volunteer corporate mentors (Lenovo Japan, NTT Group, Salesforce Japan, and others)

Conditions for success

  • Backing from Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo
  • Corporate volunteer mentor network
  • National franchise of the global Technovation Girls programme

Where it fits

Governance type
nonprofit-led with government and corporate backing
Scale
national (Japan)
Income level
high-income

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes Philanthropic / foundation funding

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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