What is Nationwide School Closure

In Japan, schools were closed from March to May 2020 due to COVID-19. As most schools could not offer online classes, in April 2020, the government implemented the GIGA School Concept to accelerate the development of information and communication technology (ICT) in primary and secondary education. A case study of a secondary school was conducted. The results show that the principal exercised four types of leadership based on firm values: (1) sharing the vision and motivating teachers, (2) distributed leadership, (3) instructional leadership, and (4) responding appropriately to a pandemic. At the national levels, the main focus was on responding to the pandemic and implementing the GIGA School Initiative policy, while the schools were following more multifaceted leadership for improvement.