A popular Japanese YouTuber has announced he’s committing to becoming the best Fortnite player in the world. To that end, he’ll be buckling down and dedicating himself to practicing between nine and 11 hours daily.
That’s gonna require, however, that he skip out on attending middle school. Tarou’s announcement that he’s choosing Fortnite over homeroom has sparked a debate about whether that’s in his best interests. In a new series of interviews, however, his parents defend the family’s decision. They also reveal, inadvertently, why other families may not be able to follow suit.
Putting off school in favor of Fortnite
Tarou is a 12-year-old gamer and YouTuber with a hefty YouTube following of 192,000. According to Tarou’s parents, he started playing smartphone games at age three and became hooked on Fortnite, a popular online battle royale-style shooting game, at a mere five years old.
By his second year of elementary school, his father said, he was winning against professional Fortnite players. At age 10, according to his YouTube bio, he claimed a first-place ranking on a regional leaderboard. A pro Fortnite team player suggested he start a YouTube channel, telling the player and his parents that he’d never seen anyone so young with such a talent for the game.
Tarou made headlines in February when he declared on his YouTube channel that he would postpone middle school indefinitely. The decision followed in the steps of another famous child YouTuber, Yutabon, who famously quit school when he was 10. (Yutabon has since gone back to school.)
The gamer posted the declaration to his X account, where he said he made the decision “after discussing it over with my parents and school over the past year.” He said he was motivated by his desire to get enough sleep, exercise, and study time while also dedicating himself to Fortnite and his YouTube channel.
“The top tournament players are all stronger players than me,” he told News Post Seven. “They keep getting better by playing every day. After watching them catch up to me and pass me, I realized I couldn’t keep up until I was practicing 10 hours a day.”
A blessed family?
Tarou’s decision is a rare move in Japan, where education is compulsory through middle school and there is no formal, legalized right to homeschooling. Students who are having a tough time at school or want to pursue alternative education options can only do so with buy-in from their local school systems.
In Tarou’s case, he has a bit of a leg up. According to the second part of an interview with News Post Seven, his parents are well-off and well-educated: his father is a graduate of Tokyo University’s Law School and currently works freelance. His mother, a graduate of a university overseas, is also an entrepreneur. The family previously lived in a tower apartment in Minato City’s ritzy Aoyama neighborhood before moving to a small town with a few thousand people.
His parents insist he’s getting adequate rest and education. His mother and father say he sleeps 10 hours daily. As for his education, his parents say they’re basing his studies on his interests, as they doubt what’s taught in middle schools currently is “really useful in this day and age.”
The decision has sparked a debate online. While many fans support Tarou, others raise many of the same questions raised when someone decides to homeschool their kids. Will he get enough education? Will he miss out by not socializing with classmates?
A top comment on Yahoo! News JP, with 28K likes, thinks Tarou will be fine because his parents are highly educated and well-off.
“I wouldn’t recommend run-of-the-mill families emulate this,” the commenter warned.
Tarou isn’t the only one for whom a traditional Japanese education doesn’t work, however. Data shows that a record number of elementary and middle school students in Japan are refusing to go to school. For most, it’s not because they have promising YouTube careers, but due to problems such as depression, exhaustion, and bullying. It would be nice if more students had access to alternative options currently available only to well-off families.
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