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Kumon North America company history timeline

1958

1958: Kumon Institute of Education incorporates.

1958 The office of the Osaka Institute of Mathematics is established in Osaka, Japan.

Interest in the self-learning method continued to grow, and the first Kumon Center opened in 1958.

1962

1962: The first Kumon learning center opens in Tokyo.

1962 The Osaka Institute of Mathematics Ltd. is established.

1963

1963 Kumon’s Tokyo Office is opened.

1965

Toyonaka Uenozaka Center where Toru and Teiko Kumon instructed students together (circa 1965).

1969

1969 The total number of subject enrollments exceeds 10,000.

1972

1972 The company name, Osaka Institute of Mathematics, is changed to Osaka Kumon Institute of Mathematics.

1974

In 1974, Toru Kumon published a book entitled The Secret of Kumon Maths which illustrated the aims of the Kumon Method and its effectiveness so far.

1974 The Secret of Kumon Math (published by Koseido Publishing) becomes a best seller.

Kumon opened the first center outside of Japan in 1974 in New York.

1975

1975 Centre opens in Taiwan.

1977

1977: The company pushes into the South American market, with its first learning center located in Brazil.

At the same time, Kumon began to expand internationally, opening its first centre outside of Japan in New York, USA. The total number of Kumon subject enrolments in Japan continued to grow, reaching 200,000 by 1977.

1977 Kumon begins publishing workbooks for preschoolers.

1979

1979 The first Kumon Instructors Conference is held in Osaka, Japan.

1979 Centre opens in Germany.

1980

Then, in 1980, it began teaching English as well.

Kumon first hit Canada in 1980 with a learning center in Toronto.

1980: Kumon centers in Japan begin teaching English.

1980 The Kumon English Programme (for native Japanese speakers) is launched.

1980 An affiliated company is established in São Paulo, Brazil.

1981

In 1981, the learning centers came to Germany, and a decade later the company established a presence in the United Kingdom.

1981 The Kumon Japanese Programme (for native Japanese speakers) is launched.

1982

1982 The Osaka Kumon Institute of Mathematics Co., Ltd. and the Tokyo Kumon Institute of Mathematics Co., Ltd. merge to become the Kumon Institute of Mathematics Co., Ltd.

1984

1984 The Kumon Japanese Learning Program (for foreign learners) is launched.

1985

1985 The Kumon Penmanship Program is launched.

1986

1986 The Kumon French and German programs (for native speakers of Japanese) are launched.

1988

Interest in Kumon began to grow rapidly in the United States after 1988.

1988: In-school program begins in the United States.

1988 Kumon Publishing Co., Ltd. is established.

1989

By 1989, the total number of subject enrolments exceeded 1.5 million.

1990

1990 The Kumon English Program (for native English speakers) is launched in Australia.

1991

1991 An affiliated company is established in Madrid, Spain.

Kumon’s reading program was launched in 1991.

The overall number of students enrolled and the number of learning centers overall increased during the 1990s. Its revenue climbed to approximately $300 million by 1991, and the company seemed to prosper despite increasing competition from other after-school programs and from computer software, as well as in the face of a declining birth rate in Japan.

1993

In 1993, the company restructured its North American market division and stopped encouraging the Kumon method's use in schools.

Kumon was actually the biggest of the three, with 850 learning centers in North America, plus some 500 schools using the method in 1993.

In 1993, Sylvan bought out Britannica and so increased the number of franchises it controlled to close to 500 in the United States and Canada.

1993 The Kumon Chinese Program (for native Chinese speakers) is launched in Taiwan.

1994

An affiliated company is established in São Paulo, Brazil.Completion of the Kumon South America head office building (August 1994)An affiliated company is established in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Schools that had already started with Kumon were allowed to continue, but the number of school-based enrollees dropped by more than half by 1994.

1994 The Kumon Portuguese Program (for native Portuguese speakers) is launched in Brazil.

1995

1995: Toru Kumon dies.

1995 An affiliated company is established in Singapore.

1996

1996 An affiliated company is established in Johannesburg, South Africa.

1997

1997 Kumon President Takeshi Kumon passes away.

1997 A Kumon Office is established in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

1998

1998 An affiliated company is established in Bangkok, Thailand.

1999

By 1999, it was considered one of the top five franchise businesses in the world, according to Entrepreneur International (March 1999), in terms of its financial strength and stability, growth rate and size.

An article in the New York Times (October 31, 1999) about suburban New Jersey children tallied the increasing popularity of Kumon with parents' concerns about giving their kids a head start academically.

2000

By the year 2000, Kumon had more than a thousand learning centers in the United States, and enrollment was increasing annually at a rate higher than 10 percent.

2000 Kumon is reorganized into a group management structure.

2000 An affiliated company is established in Jakarta, Indonesia.

2001

2001 Joint research into the effects of learning therapy on senile dementia begins.

2001 The total number of enrollments in the world exceeds 3 million.

2003

2003 All Kumon signboards are replaced with the new Kumon logo signboards.

2003 The total number of overseas subject enrollments exceeds 2 million.

2004

The Kumon Institute launched its first advertising campaign in the United States in 2004, spending approximately $10 million on television spots.

2004: The company begins television advertising in the United States.

2005

By 2005, Kumon had some 1,210 learning centers in the United States, with over 130,000 students enrolled.

2005 The Kumon CFL Program (Chinese as a Foreign Language) is launched in Korea.

2006

2006 An affiliated company is established in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

2007

2007 Activities for child-raising support begin.

2008

2008 Kumon celebrates the 50th anniversary of its founding.

2008 The Kumon Thai Program (for native Thai speakers) is launched in Thailand.

2010

2010 Kumon begins offering its educational services to universities.

2011

2011 An affiliated company is established in Beijing, China.

2012

2012 The Baby Kumon Program is launched.

2018

2018 Kumon celebrates the 60th anniversary of its founding.

2018 An affiliated company is established in Macau.

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Founded
1958
Company founded
Headquarters
Teaneck, NJ
Company headquarter
Founders
Toru Kumon
Company founders
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Kumon North America may also be known as or be related to Kumon, Kumon Canada Inc, Kumon Math & Reading Center, Kumon North America, Kumon North America Inc and Kumon North America, Inc.