TL;DR: planning to move to Tokyo with kids and looking for school information from people who may have had a similar experience.
—
I have accepted a position with Rakuten at their Setagaya office (yes, I am aware of the reputation, but the offer was surprisingly good). We currently live in Southern California.
I have two girls aged 9 and 12 who both speak Japanese close to fluently, but their writing ability in particular has suffered over the last couple years as we had been focusing on school which frankly just became weird during the pandemic.
My 12 year old hasn’t been reading at grade level so we know that’s a bit of an uphill battle, but not insurmountable. My 9 year old is probably closer to grade level with reading and is much more likely to catch up without as much trouble.
International schools are out of our price range short of a scholarship, but there are some private schools and public schools we’ve found that either have English language classes for kids like ours or have assistance programs for “returning” students that aren’t at grade level and need to catch up.
We’re hoping for some information from people that have had a similar situation and what they chose to do. And maybe some info that isn’t from official sources on schools and how well they may be able to help the kids to catch up and adapt. We’re looking at the west side of Tokyo (Tachikawa, Mitaka, Setagaya, Machida, etc.) and Kanagawa (Kawasaki, northern/north western Yokohama, etc) as potential places to live in. There is also a school near Akabane station that might be a good fit, but we really don’t want to live around there based on what my wife has read.
My wife is from Osaka so this is really a new area for her despite having several friends that live in the area who have been very helpful.
Thanks for reading my wall of text. We’re just trying to gather as much info as possible.
9 comments
Not the area you listed but [KAIS](http://www.kaisems.com/) is geared towards returnees or halfs. Mostly bilingual (although a bit more English) and tuition +admission fees are cheaper than other private schools.
I’m not sure I understand what the end goal is from your post. Your children will go to Japanese school but you wish to supplement with English classes (or do a hybrid program) to keep them equivalent level in both? Or you want them to go full English curriculum on par with their US education and completely avoid Japanese schooling? If you search through my post history (sorry for not getting the link myself), I have a fairly long post about this topic in other threads about people looking for “real” international school alternatives.
With that said, my advice to mid-career expats coming over will always boil down to the comp package including your childrens’ schooling. You might want to reconsider the offer/move if that’s not the case, because there is not much of a middle ground between paying low or high tens of thousands out of pocket in the Tokyo area.
I moved to Yokohama with my 2 12 year olds and a 10 year old 2 years ago. Our plan was different to yours as they all went to Japanese school without any Japanese skills. In our case we were not so worried about academics.
If you have any questions I can share my experience.
[removed]
We moved when our kids (5, 8, and 14) had zero japanese language skills. We put them all in government-run schools. Both the primary and middle schools had special classes called “kokusai kouryuu kyoushitsu” or something similar for “kikokushya” or foreign students.
If government-run schools is the route you are looking at then you should contact your local board of education or the town hall and they can give you information on which schools have those types of classes/programs.
When we moved here, we were super lucky. The schools we lived closest to just happened to be 1 of like 2 or 3 schools in the entire city that have this class.
We also let one child go to international school for a year…big mistake. The kid LOVED it but frankly the level of japanese instruction was not enough, so we moved to a private bilingual school. Which is basically a traditional japanese school with half the subjects taught in english. Suffice it to say kid does not love it.
Congrats! What made you guys decide to move? I’m guessing you’re in engineering and have been eyeing positions in Japan?
[removed]
There’s a family YouTube channel called Life In Japan. I’d recommend watching that a bit as they moved to Japan with kids. They did an interview with TAKASHii from Japan fairly recently and talked a lot about family life and having the kids in public schools. I’m not sure about link sharing on here so search them up on YouTube 👍
Have you thought about getting them caught up through a juku? Kumon has locations all over & they have a Japanese program— one for Japanese speaking kids to get better at literacy skills, and another for foreigners learning Japanese. Sounds like the former would suit your situation.
I’m currently in Japan with 2 kids, ages 6 and 8. They’re in Japanese public school with almost no prior Japanese ability.
An American friend of mine lived in Yokohama for a while with her child, also an American who attended Japanese public school. She said it was a pretty international area and her school was supportive. The region matters somewhat, but the individual school culture is hugely important too. I’m in an area with very few foreigners and little structured/formal support, but the principal and teachers have been really giving it their all to help our kids, so it’s still been a net positive experience so far.