Can a sleepy Japanese town become Asia's Silicon Valley?

Tokushima is not where you would expect to see the opening of a school for tech savvy young entrepreneurs.

The sleepy, rural region is located on the southern island of Shikoku.

The area, which has been suffering from an aging population for a long time, will soon welcome a bunch of young people.

The first school of tech entrepreneurship in Japan will open in the Tokushima town of Kamiyama.

Engineering, programming and designing, as well as business skills, will be taught to the students from 15 to 20 years old. In order to raise money, they will be taught how to pitch their business plans.

Chikahiro Terada is the boss of Sansan, a Tokyo-based start-up that specializes in digitalising business cards. These are still very important in Japan's business world.

Why did Mr Terada choose the area? The story begins in 2010

Twelve years ago, he set up a remote office because he heard that Kamiyama had high-speed internet.

Mr Terada met the man who was responsible for the installation of the internet in the town.

Mr Terada thought he might be told off if he said he wanted to open an office without help. He offered to teach the elderly how to use computers.

Mr Terada was asked to prove that a Tokyo-based IT company could have an office here. The remote offices in Kamiyama were set up after Sansan's success.

Mr Terada was excited to see the town being rejuvenated. I wondered what else I could do to help society, and then I thought about education.

I didn't learn any crucial skills that I needed to start a business when I was in school.

A government system called furusato nozei or " hometown tax" has enabled Mr. Terada to raise over 15 million dollars for the school. Mid- to high-earning big city dwellers can donate money to a rural region of their choice in exchange for a reduction in their income and residency taxes.

Thirty companies are financial supporters of the school. The majority of them are Japanese, but there are some international ones.

Young people in Japan usually join big established firms as a safe career path.

More than 200 applications from all over Japan have been received for the first 40 slots in Mr Terada's plans.

Adhering to a 50:50 ratio of girls and boys is a step in the right direction in a country where men still dominate the start-up scene.

"For a long time, start-ups have had some disadvantages in Japan, but from now on it will be different," Karen said.

The emphasis will be given to these digital start-up companies if the regulations are removed. We want them to start from the rural areas as well.

New Tech Economy explores how technological innovation will shape the new economy.

The country is also home to the oldest population in the world.

Almost a third of the country has been left behind as things have been digitalised.

Mrs Sasaki tells me she doesn't know how to use a phone.

She and her friends were waiting for a supermarket to open when I met them.

This start-up, which helps thousands of the country's elderly, was born in this area.

It only had two trucks when it started. With more than 1,000 vans on the road across Japan, it has annual sales of more than $150 million.

The majority of its customers are elderly.

Junichi Kishimoto travels to Kamiyama once a week to fulfill everyone's orders.

Mrs Sasaki says that her husband remembers what she wants to buy. I request something special if my grandsons come on Sunday.

It is a chance for customers who live alone after their partners pass away to hang out with their friends as they wait for the van to come.

Mr. Kishimoto joined the company to help the elderly and not to make a living.

Some residents of a nursing home came to live there because they were worried about their food. When I heard about Tokushimaru, I wondered what I could do to help.

The idea for the company came from the founder's parents who were struggling with groceries.

When he started Tokushimaru, he knew the market would grow for the next 20 to 30 years because the society wasn't providing any solutions.

The company is changing with the times. It hopes that the app will be available in the next two years. The next generation of customers are more tech savvy than the previous ones, and that is one of the reasons why its competitors are catching up.

The baby boomers in their 70s will become our main customers and we're combining our supermarket trucks with online shopping.

Over the last 30 years, Mr. Sumitomo has started many other businesses.

He hopes that the new boarding school in Kamiyama will be a success. One person can make a huge difference in a rural town.

When we were in Tokushima, Mr Ominami wasn't available to be interviewed, but he and Chikahiro Terada had a plan to turn Kamiyama into Asia's Silicon Valley.

A man's plan to bring high-speed internet to his hometown may have brought a brighter future than it could have ever hoped for.

On Saturday, 27 August and Sunday, 28 August, you can watch New Tech Economy Japan on the television.