KidZania is a theme park where children role play various jobs in a kid-sized city. They earn play money called KidZos that they can spend in stores sponsored by real-life companies. The goal is to teach them skills including financial literacy but just like in the real-world, some countries are less fiscally responsible says Koji Nose, executive managing director of the KidZania Tokyo franchise.
“Compared to Mexico and other countries’ Kidzanias for example, kids here want to work and make money and save their money in the bank,” Nose told CNN. “But in other countries they want to spend the money first, and after that they make money. It is a big difference between other countries and Japan.”
KidZania franchises in the US and UK are scheduled to open in 2015.