Reiko Nakauchi

Founder and Global Education Innovator

Reiko Nakauchi is an educational innovator, entrepreneur and author who combines Japanese tradition with Silicon Valley thinking. She has spoken at Stanford University and TEDx and has spent more than 20 years reshaping early childhood education for the AI era. She founded Sora International Preschool, with campuses in Silicon Valley and Tsukuba Science City in Japan. She began her career in Tokyo before moving to the United States, where she earned her AMI Montessori international credential, and in 2011 founded her school in Silicon Valley, serving families from technology companies including Google, Apple and NASA. By combining the creative inquiry of Reggio Emilia and Montessori with the discipline of Japanese manners education, she developed the Sora Method, built around her SMILE framework and the concept of JOY-katsu, the practice of joy, which cultivates the inner strength and self-reliance children need for an unpredictable future. She is the author of World-Class Parenting from Silicon Valley.