Origin of the company name
The name of the company, “Z-kai”, is derived from the original company name “Jitsuryoku-Zoshin-kai(実力増進会)”.
The word jitsuryoku (実力) means “true ability”and the word Zoshin-kai (増進会) consists of three Kanji characters, zo (増), shin (進)and kai (会), that mean respectively “increase”, “progress” and “gathering”. The word “gathering” indicates the relationship between students (we call our students “members”) and the company.
The members began to call the company “Zoshinkai”, then “Z-kai”, abbreviating it to the initial letter. The letter “Z” is pronounced “Zetto” in Japan, so that the company is called “Zetto-kai”.
“Jitsuryoku-Zoshin-kai”, the predecessor to Z-kai, was established in 1931, in Yodobashi-cho, Toyotama-gun, Tokyo.
As an English teacher in middle school under the prewar system (“Kyusei-chugaku”) the founder of “Jitsuryoku-Zoshin-kai”, Yutaka Fujii, felt a lack of passion in his pupils. However, when he started to give the pupils mock tests once or twice a week, they eagerly consulted their dictionaries (they were allowed to use dictionaries in tests) in their efforts to answer the problems, and he realized that even the students whose English was weak were gradually able to improve their English language skills.
This is the origin of the educational philosophy of Z-kai: “Practice is worth a hundred lectures”. His experiences in the classroom laid the foundation of the later correspondence course business. Since its inception, Z-kai has for 92 years offered attentive educational instruction that always gives top priority to the concerns of our members.
Since 2006, the company has used the nickname “Z-kai”as the official company name. Currently a wide range of educational companies that share the same passion for education have joined the Z-kai Group, and Z-kai has become a comprehensive educational group. The group operates a wide range of businesses, including the correspondence education from which Z-kai started, and also cram schools, corporate business, language education, overseas study, remedial teaching and career support services, overseas operations, etc.
The Z-kai Group will continue to deliver educational services to help each individual customer to explore possibilities for the future.
