An Osaka Jr. High Boy Youngest Ever to Pass Tough Network Specialist Examination

Seioo Inouye, 2nd grader in an Osaka Junior High school, took and passed a national examination "Network Specialist Examination" at age 13, beating his predecessor by 3 years. The test is one of the national examinations for information processing technicians and known to be a tough one. 

Seioo is no ordinary PC nut. He began using PC at 3-4th grades and was quick to learn programming. Astounded, his mother let him loose doing whatever he pleased. He tried on and managed IT passport, then applied IT engineer, information security specialist and then network specialist. He broke very record there was in IT exams at record youngest years ages. The Network Specialist Examination is for grown up IT engineers to test skills to construct network systems. 12,307 took the test last year and the pass rate was 14.6%.

So far he has developed two applications for Apple mobile devices and distributed them free. A game "Heptype" for memorizing 7-digit numbers is his; so is Rhodium that makes twittering easier. Both are downloaded 1500 and 2300 times, respectively. "Programming is a fun when what you makes actually moves", says Seioo.

Passing the information processing technicians' test motivated Seioo to further his study in broader areas - areas of hardware such as Raspberry Pie, Arduino, etc.

Seioo Inouye definitely goes into computer and programming in the future; he vaguely pictures himself employed at US firms such as GitHub in San Francisco, California. He has a few company photos and was attracted by the firm's free atmosphere.

Seioo has trouble finding time for general studies apart from IT. He used to have 5-6 hours every day touching the keyboard but not anymore. His mother, Hodumi Inouye, says:

"As his parent, I want him to pursue whatever he finds worthy and want to support him doing that. But here in Japan young people have entrance exams to high school and college. It's hard balancing both". 

News Source: Nikkei Shinbum