Kōhei Uchimura
Practicing one six-hour session 5–7 days per week, Shirai did attend regular school—not typical for most elite athletes. After Shirai graduated high school in March 2015, he got accepted to study/compete at his new home club Nippon Sport Science University (NSSU) in southern Tokyo. Many of Japan's other members on their national artistic gymnastics (AG) teams use this university's facilities to study and/or train too, which include alumnus and Shirai's mentor Kōhei Uchimura.