How to Choose an International School — Thinking Through Four Realities: Tuition, the System, Language Development, and Career Paths
Why this topic is on parents’ minds
“English seems likely to be necessary in the future,” “there’s a chance of an overseas assignment in our family,” “apparently you can go straight on from the new preschool nearby to an international school”—when children turn 3 or 4, options like these suddenly start lining up in front of you as real possibilities.
On the other hand, as you look into it, you run into questions like these.
- What is the difference in the first place between an international school and a preschool or an English kindergarten?
- What does tuition of ¥2,000,000 to ¥3,000,000 a year go toward?
- If my child doesn’t go to a Japanese elementary school, is “compulsory education” still OK?
- If my child lives in English, will their academic ability in Japanese grow?
- After graduating, can they go to a Japanese university?
These are problems in which four things are tangled together—the system, money, development, and career paths—that are hard to sort out from online ads and word of mouth alone. Here, based on official materials from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the standards of accreditation bodies, and developmental research on children in bilingual environments, we give you a map for decision-making, step by step.
What is an international school? — types, and “things that look similar but are different”
The term “international school” actually has no clear legal definition. Schools called “international schools” in Japan fall broadly into the following 3 to 4 types.
Traditional international schools
TRADITIONAL INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS
Schools originally established for the children of foreign residents, diplomats, and expatriate families in Japan. They have long histories (many were founded between the Meiji era and the early Showa era), use American or British curricula, and use English as the first language. Many are accredited by overseas accreditation bodies such as WASC and CIS.
International Baccalaureate (IB) authorized schools
IB AUTHORIZED SCHOOLS
Schools that use the curricula (PYP/MYP/DP/CP) authorized by the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO). Some are private international-type schools, and in recent years more Japanese Article 1 schools (public and private elementary, junior high, and high schools) have introduced it. The language of instruction varies by school: English, Japanese, or both.
English immersion schools and new-wave international schools
IMMERSION / NEW-WAVE
Schools that have increased over the past 20 years or so, mainly for children from Japanese families. They use English immersion (learning subjects in English), but whether they are accredited and who runs them vary, and even if they call themselves 'international schools,' their character may differ from traditional international schools.
In addition, something often confused with these is “preschool.” A preschool is an English-environment childcare and early education facility for preschool children (roughly ages 2 to 5). Some have a main international school (elementary division and above) beyond it, while others assume that after graduating, children go on to an ordinary kindergarten and elementary school. That “graduating from a preschool ≠ going on to an international school” is a point to understand first.
Why it matters not to lump all “international schools” together
Even among schools called “international schools,” traditional international schools and new immersion schools can differ completely in teacher qualifications, curriculum, the language backgrounds of enrolled children, accreditation, and paths after graduation. Beyond ad slogans and surface information such as “children spend a long time in English,” you need to check, school by school, the “accreditation,” “treatment under the system,” and “substance of the language environment” described below.
Accreditation — how to look at WASC and CIS
When choosing an international school, the first thing to check is whether it has external accreditation. The internationally well-known accreditation bodies are mainly these two.
A nonprofit community of international schools headquartered in the Netherlands, an accreditation body with more than 1,400 member schools in more than 100 countries and regions worldwide
accredits schools that meet standards for governance, curriculum, teacher qualifications, student well-being, an international mindset, and more.
Schools accredited by one of the regional accreditation bodies in the United States covering K-12 through university, which also accredits international schools outside the United States are often regarded as having a foundation for career guidance with entry to U.S. universities in mind.
Schools with these accreditations have features such as:
- They regularly undergo external evaluation of curriculum, assessment methods, ongoing teacher training, facility safety, and more
- It is relatively easy to transfer grades and credits between accredited schools (which can be an advantage when transferring abroad)
- In universities’ (especially overseas universities’) review of application documents, school reports and GPAs tend to be trusted
Put the other way, there are quite a few schools that call themselves “international schools” but have no external accreditation at all. Lack of accreditation does not in itself immediately mean “a bad school,” but being ready, at the stage of visiting or inquiring, to ask “Which body accredits you, and since when?” keeps your judgment steady.
The reality of tuition — ¥2,000,000 to ¥3,000,000 a year is often the “minimum”
Tuition at international schools is quite high, even compared with Japanese private elementary schools. Only as a guide, at the elementary division of a traditional international school, the breakdown is often roughly as follows.
- Tuition (annual): about ¥2,000,000 to ¥2,500,000
- Enrollment fee (first year only): ¥300,000 to ¥500,000
- Facility fees and donations (annual or first year): several hundred thousand yen to several million yen (whether optional or required differs by school)
- School bus, lunch, materials, extracurricular activities, field trips: several hundred thousand yen a year
- Initial costs such as uniforms and tablets: over ¥100,000
As a result, ¥2,500,000 to ¥3,500,000 a year in total, with the first year higher than that, is typical. It rises further in the middle and high school divisions. This is about twice the cost of a Japanese private elementary school (median ¥1,000,000 to ¥1,500,000 a year).
In addition, even at the preschool stage, it is not unusual for facilities to charge ¥100,000 to ¥200,000 a month (¥1,200,000 to ¥2,400,000 a year). If you think of “international school from preschool through the elementary, middle, and high school divisions,” that comes to education costs on the scale of roughly ¥40,000,000 to ¥50,000,000 over 15 years. Because it is spending on a scale comparable to buying a home, it is realistically hard to think about it separately from your household’s long-term plan.
Treatment under the Japanese system — “miscellaneous schools,” “Article 1 schools,” and “the obligation to send children to school”
This is probably the most overlooked point in choosing an international school.
Japan’s School Education Act has the so-called “Article 1 schools” (schools defined in Article 1 of the Act: kindergartens, elementary schools, junior high schools, high schools, etc.) and other frameworks.
According to official materials on the legal treatment of international schools, many international schools in Japan are run not as “elementary schools” or “junior high schools” under the School Education Act, but with a license from the prefectural governor as “miscellaneous schools,” or are run without a license.
Here is what this difference concretely means for parents.
1. The relationship with “the obligation to send children to school”
Parents with Japanese nationality have an obligation to “send their child to an elementary school and junior high school (= an Article 1 school)” (School Education Act, Article 17). In the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s view, when a child attends an international school (a miscellaneous school or unlicensed school), as a rule it is not treated as fulfilling the obligation to send children to school.
In practice, it is common for parents to explain the circumstances to the municipal board of education and have the child treated, for example, as “enrolled at the local elementary or junior high school but excused from attendance,” but this is an exceptional practice under the law, and in reality responses vary by municipality. You need to know from the start that unexpected procedures may come up when you move, transfer schools, or change paths (note that the treatment changes if either parent has foreign nationality).
2. The high school stage and “eligibility to take university entrance exams”
If a child attends an international school through the high school stage and that school is not an Article 1 school, graduating does not give a Japanese “high school diploma.” To take entrance exams for Japanese universities, a child needs to obtain “eligibility for university entrance” separately, through routes such as:
- Obtaining the IB (International Baccalaureate) Diploma
- Graduating from an international high school accredited under a foreign system designated by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, such as WASC or CIS
- Taking the Certification Examination for Students Who Have Not Graduated from High School (formerly the Daiken)
At an early stage of choosing an international school, it is important to check “which Japanese universities this school’s high school graduates are assumed to be able to apply to.”
3. Commuter passes, private school subsidies, and other support
Because they are not Article 1 schools, they may fall outside the framework of private school subsidies, municipal school expense assistance, tuition reduction programs for private schools, and so on. As for commuter passes (JR and private railways), it is generally possible to buy student commuter passes even for miscellaneous schools, but the discount rate applied may differ from the “student commuter pass” for Article 1 schools.
Effects on children’s language development — BICS and CALP
In choosing an international school, what parents may care about most is “Will my child learn English?” On the other hand, what researchers have long debated is rather “whether, by spending long hours in an English environment, the child’s academic ability in their native language (Japanese) will grow enough.”
What matters here is the distinction BICS / CALP, proposed by the Canadian language education scholar Jim Cummins.
- BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills): language ability at the level of everyday conversation. It works in situations with plenty of contextual support (facial expressions, the situation, gestures). It is said to reach a practical level in roughly 1 to 2 years after entering a second-language environment.
- CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency): academic language ability such as reading textbooks, discussing abstract ideas, and writing arguments. The ability to process concepts through language alone with little contextual support. It is said to take 5 to 7 years (10 years or more depending on conditions).
How does this relate to choosing an international school?
Many observations show that if a child spends every day in English at an international school, their English BICS does grow quickly. On the other hand, English CALP needs a long time, and at the same time, there is a risk that if the quantity and quality of Japanese at home are not enough, Japanese CALP will not grow enough either. The state of reaching adulthood with CALP half-developed in both languages is called “semilingual” in research, and Cummins himself has discussed it as an undesirable outcome (Language, Power and Pedagogy).
The quality of Japanese at home matters more than you might imagine
This is not a story of “better not to choose an international school.” It is a conditional conclusion: for children at international schools to also develop solid Japanese CALP, the quality and quantity of Japanese at home need to be secured deliberately. Concretely, designing the language environment at home, such as:
- Parents talking with the child every day in Japanese about abstract and conceptual topics (feelings, cause and effect, how society works, etc.)
- Creating an environment for reading Japanese books (stories, picture encyclopedias, newspaper articles, etc.) suited to the child’s age
- Parents themselves showing the child how they think and speak in Japanese
makes a difference.
In addition, recent bilingual education research has drawn attention to the idea of translanguaging. A theoretical book on language use by children in bilingual environments, by researchers at the City University of New York and the University of London presents the view that children “mixing” two languages is not a sign of lacking ability, but can rather be evidence that they are using two language resources in an integrated way. The recent understanding is that when moments come up at home such as “English words get mixed in, Japanese grammar breaks down,” taking them as chances to deepen meaning in both languages, rather than correcting them too much, may contribute to long-term language development.
My husband’s job involves frequent transfers, and there’s a high chance of an overseas assignment in 3 years. Would it be better to put our child in an international school now and get them used to English, so they won’t struggle once we get there?
For families with a possible overseas assignment, it’s among the clearest reasons to choose an international school. In terms of Cummins’s BICS/CALP framework, everyday conversational English grows in roughly 1 to 2 years once a child starts living there. Developing it ahead of time in Japan may indeed reduce the burden of “the first six months” when entering a local school.
That’s reassuring. But I also wonder what would happen if the assignment ends up not happening and we live in Japan the whole time.
That scenario is something you definitely want to think through once. If a child keeps attending an international school and then transfers to a Japanese elementary or junior high school, it may take considerable time to close the gap in academic Japanese (reading textbooks, writing in kanji, writing arguments). The decision changes depending on whether you “enter once the assignment is confirmed” or “enter while it’s still a possibility.”
Is there also the option of entering at the preschool stage and thinking flexibly about the path after that?
There is. At the preschool stage (ages 2 to 5), many families have their child gain the experience of enjoying English and then move to a Japanese kindergarten and elementary school. Going on to the main international school (elementary division and above) versus graduating from preschool makes a big difference in both the household burden and the institutional risks. Being aware at the first entry point of “where to leave room to switch from here on” makes later decisions easier.
Paths after graduation — overseas universities, IB admissions, and returnee admissions
The paths of graduates of international high school divisions fall roughly into the following three.
1. Going on to overseas universities
This is the most common route for graduates of traditional international schools and IB schools. According to a graduate destinations survey that tracked where IB Diploma holders went on to study, IB graduates go on widely to well-known universities around the world (major universities in the U.K. and the U.S., Europe, Oceania, etc.). However, going to an overseas university requires separate tuition (¥3,000,000 to ¥8,000,000 a year), living costs, and travel costs, and unless you assume winning scholarships, the 4 years of university cost a further ¥20,000,000 to ¥30,000,000 in education expenses.
2. “IB admissions” and “returnee admissions” at Japanese universities
In recent years, more Japanese universities have set up “IB admissions” for IB Diploma holders. According to the official list of universities in Japan using IB admissions, many national, public, and private universities, including the University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, International Christian University, Sophia University, Waseda University, and Keio University, use IB admissions (the faculties and selection methods differ by university). There are also paths that use frameworks such as “returnee admissions” and “admissions in English (using EJU/English scores).”
However, because these differ in character from general admissions, you need to understand the application requirements, number of places, and the weight given to interviews and essays from an early stage of high school.
3. General admissions to Japanese universities
The route of international school graduates taking general admissions to Japanese universities (via the Common Test) has quite a high hurdle because of differences in curriculum. Extra study is needed in subjects that the international school curriculum gives limited time to, such as Japanese history, Japanese language (classical Japanese and classical Chinese), and reading speed in modern Japanese. Some families run “attending an international school while preparing for general admissions at a cram school” in parallel, but careful planning is needed for both the child’s burden and the household’s.
Families it suits and families it may not (only a guide)
This is not “absolutely so,” but based on research and practice so far, the features of families that tend to match well with international schools, and of families that should think more carefully, can be organized as follows.
Cases where the reason for choosing an international school tends to be relatively clear
- An overseas assignment is confirmed or highly likely — assuming the child will transfer into a local school, the return on investment from getting used to an English environment is easy to see
- Both parents or one parent have English as their first language — because the home language and the school language continue into each other, the problem of securing native-language (Japanese) CALP at home is handled in a different way
- You are seriously considering overseas universities — the international school’s career guidance directly helps with preparing application documents, interviews, and recommendations
- The child tends to come alive in cross-cultural environments — being able to observe the child at trial enrollment or summer school gives material for judgment
Cases where it is better to think more carefully
- There is no plan for an overseas assignment, and you are likely to keep living in Japan — the burden on the family of consciously planning the development of Japanese CALP and balancing it with Japanese university entrance exams becomes large
- Tuition, as a fixed cost, squeezes the household budget — when education costs start to squeeze other risks (housing, retirement, siblings’ education), it tends to end up narrowing your options
- You live outside the major cities, and there is only one international school as an option — choosing in a situation where “comparison isn’t possible” makes it hard to examine accreditation and the quality of operation
- The main purpose is “I want my child to become able to use English” — if that is the only purpose, comparing options including those other than international schools (public immersion schools, private schools that focus on English, an English environment at home, studying abroad, etc.) makes it easier to evaluate cost-effectiveness
To repeat, this is not about excluding “families it doesn’t suit,” but something to read as material for deciding “what to prioritize, and what to make up for by other means.”
A checklist for visits
Here is a summary of points to check at the stage of actually visiting and meeting with international schools.
- Accreditation: which of CIS, WASC, and IBO the school holds, when it obtained them, and when the next renewal is
- Treatment under the system: miscellaneous school or unlicensed; the relationship with the local municipality (how exemption from school attendance is handled); examples of children who transferred in the past
- Curriculum: American, British, or IB; whether there is cross-subject learning; assessment methods (how grades are given)
- Teachers: the proportion of foreign teachers, teacher qualifications (whether they hold a teaching license from their home country), average length of service (a high turnover rate needs attention)
- Class composition: the number of students per class, the nationalities of enrolled children (if the share of Japanese children is extremely high, its function as an English environment is limited)
- Japanese language education: the hours and content of Japanese language classes, whether there are Japanese staff, attention to Japanese CALP
- Graduates’ track record: where graduates went over the past 5 to 10 years (overseas universities, domestic universities, the middle divisions of domestic international schools, etc.), and how transparent the breakdown is
- Total cost: a full list of costs other than tuition (donations, facility fees, extracurricular activities, materials, uniforms, school bus, lunch, field trips)
- Risks of withdrawing or transferring: examples of families who transferred to a Japanese school partway, and the school’s support
If possible, being able to hear from parents of current students (ideally Japanese families) somewhere other than the school’s official guided tour improves the accuracy of your material for judgment.
Closing dialogue — before “which school,” look at “our family’s life”
In the end, what should decide whether we choose an international school? The ads say things like “developing global talent” and “succeeding in the world,” and somehow they move me, but I feel deciding on that basis isn’t right.
Please value that sense that something is off. What can be said from the standpoint of research and practice is that before deciding whether to choose an international school, your decision becomes more stable if you first talk as a family about “where our family will live over the next 10 years, and what kind of path we want to send our child on.”
Talking about our family before choosing a school, you mean.
Yes. An international school is a significant “crossroads” in terms of the system, the household budget, and career paths. Will there be an overseas assignment or will you keep living in Japan, how much can you allocate to education costs, and where will you realistically consider for your child’s university? When these four become visible, the kind of school you need narrows down naturally.
True, if we act on “international schools seem good” without talking about that, it could get hard later.
That’s right. And one more important thing is “how to develop your child’s native language at home.” Whether or not you choose an international school, the quality of Japanese at home (abstract conversation, time reading books, parents showing how they think in Japanese) becomes the foundation of your child’s long-term academic ability. Research has shown again and again that it is not something that “grows automatically if you leave it to the school.”
So whether we choose an international school or not, there are things we can do at home.
Yes. “Which school to send your child to” is an important choice, but just as important is having the idea that “whichever school they go to, the family supports the roots of language and thinking”—that keeps your options wide. An international school is a wonderful option for families it suits, and for families it doesn’t suit, another option may be more helpful. I believe deciding from the viewpoint of “what about in our case?” is the way of choosing with the fewest regrets.
Research details
Primary sourcesContent: International schools in Japan are not “Article 1 schools” under the School Education Act; many are run as “miscellaneous schools” licensed by the prefectural governor, or are run without a license. For children with Japanese nationality, enrollment in an international school is as a rule not treated as fulfilling the obligation to send children to school, and in practice it is handled through coordination with the local municipal board of education.
The descriptions of treatment under the system in this article rely on this official information.
Limitations: Because the system and its practice change by year and municipality, the latest information needs to be checked with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the board of education where you live.
Content: CIS is an accreditation body for international schools with more than 1,400 member schools in more than 100 countries and regions worldwide. It accredits schools against standards for governance, curriculum, teacher qualifications, student well-being, an international mindset, and more.
Limitations: Because it is the viewpoint of an accreditation organization, descriptions of the significance of accreditation include a promotional tone. The real quality behind accreditation needs to be evaluated not only by whether a school is accredited but in combination with the reality of each school.
Content: The accreditation division of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges publishes accreditation standards for K-12 schools, including international schools outside the United States. It serves as a foundation for career guidance with entry to U.S. universities in mind.
Limitations: It is an accreditation with a high affinity for American curricula, and for evaluating British or European schools, other frameworks (such as BSO and ECIS) may be used alongside it.
Study design: A review paper of more than 30 years of second language acquisition research
Scope: Mainly children and students in bilingual education settings in North America, and developmental research on children in bilingual environments around the world
Main results: BICS (everyday conversational ability) reaches a practical level in roughly 1 to 2 years, but CALP (academic language proficiency) takes 5 to 7 years, and 10 years or more depending on conditions. To avoid a state in which CALP remains underdeveloped in both languages (“semilingual”), it is important to secure the quality and quantity of the native language at home.
Limitations: Because it is based mainly on bilingual education research in English-speaking countries, generalizing to combinations with very different language types, such as Japanese and English, needs further study.
Content: A work organizing the theoretical foundations of bilingual education. It presented the “linguistic interdependence hypothesis,” showing that cognitive and academic abilities developed in the first language (native language) become the foundation that supports acquiring a second language.
Limitations: It includes much normative discussion with policy recommendations and is not a book made up only of empirical research. The empirical parts need to be checked against later meta-analyses and longitudinal studies.
Content: It presents the theoretical framework of “translanguaging.” It offers a viewpoint that reframes the practice of children in bilingual environments using two language resources in an integrated way as a strength rather than a deficit.
Limitations: It is a theoretical book on educational practice, not an empirical study showing the effect size of a particular intervention. For concrete use at home, it needs to be read together with separate longitudinal studies and case studies.
Study design: A large-scale survey tracking the paths of IB Diploma holders after graduation
Participants: IB Diploma graduates around the world
Main results: IB Diploma graduates go on widely to major universities around the world. Their acceptance rate at certain highly competitive universities tends to be higher than the average for ordinary high school graduates.
Limitations: Because it is a survey by the IBO itself, its independence needs to be kept in mind. Also, families who send children to IB schools tend to already have high socioeconomic backgrounds and children with high academic ability, so a strict comparison separating the effect of the IB program itself from background factors is difficult.
Content: The official list of universities in Japan that use the IB Diploma in admissions. It lists many national, public, and private universities, including the University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, International Christian University, Sophia University, Waseda University, and Keio University.
Limitations: Because the faculties, number of places, and selection methods change by university and year, the latest information must always be checked in each university’s admissions guidelines.