Something I’ve been wondering about for a while and would love to hear insights if anyone can share. Any expats here not married to a Japanese national and have children in school? What kind of school do they attend – local public school, private international, military base, etc.? What was your decision making behind their education?
I wonder raising a child in a Japanese society with an English speaking home environment. I’m not so much worried about their language fluency in either language as I’m sure they’ll pick up both naturally. I suppose my biggest questions are related to the pros/cons of English vs. Japanese education:
English-language education
PROS:
– Often in international schools with strong diversity
– Access to programs like International Baccalaureate or other western curriculum
– Strong English ability which could be beneficial should they choose to live, study, or work in an English speaking country someday
– English-speaking parents could be fully engaged in child’s education
CONS:
– limited Japanese language immersion and lack of access to national curriculum (possible issues if wanting to pursue higher education or work in Japan someday?)
– limited social engagement with local Japanese peers one would naturally make in school setting (especially as community sports and activities etc. aren’t as common as they are in the west)
– expensive $$$$
——
Japanese-language education
PROS:
– full immersion in local culture and language
– high Japanese language ability (beneficial if they want to live and work in Japan someday)
CONS
– limited English language used in academic setting (possible issue if they want to use higher level English to live or work abroad someday)
– possible discrimination as foreigner; not as exposed to diverse student population
– Possibility for child to not be set up for success if family relocates and their background is solely a Japanese education?
– possibility that parents can’t be fully engaged with school/learning due to language barrier?
I’d love to hear about parents’ education choices (or even your own experience if you were that child) and the reasons behind them and the impact later on. Thanks!
6 comments
Japan has an excellent public school system – ignore the ‘oh it’s all rote memorization’ clowns, they have no idea what they’re talking about. A key thing to be aware of, however, is that public schools expect a fairly high degree of parent involvement. This may or may not be something you’re used to depending on your home country.
Language is thus an issue – less for your children, more for the parents!
I don’t have children yet. But the current plan is:
– public school because of cost and Japanese immersion (we plan to raise our children completely in Japan, so fluency is a must)
– some home schooling in English, Chinese, history, and culture from our home country
The idea is to trust public schools with things like math, science, and Japanese, and expose the children as much as possible to other topics we consider important at home.
I’d honestly love to go the IB route, since that’s what I had in high school (free thanks to a government grant to my public school in the US), but we likely wouldn’t be able to afford it.
I consult with a wide range of schools in Tokyo. Most of your points are spot on.
If you plan on going anywhere else than Japan international school will serve them better. That being said internation schools range from frauds pretending to be schools to centers of excellence. I would send kids to a school without first doing a ton of research. Also your kid has to apply and pass placement test/interview.
If we were to stay here for some time, I would only have the kids stay in Japanese kindy+ early elementary to get a decent grasp of the language/culture.
After that I would transfer them into good international schools. Most international schools are filled with locals after all and have good language programs.
It gives them more opportunities to stay or go abroad successfully in the future.
Expats don’t have spouse visas and their company takes care of school
This is such a great topic. Your pros/cons list and your other comments about challenges in Japanese public schools are spot on.
My wife and I didn’t have the courage to handle the stress of educating our kids in Japan but we have family members and friends who did. Some raised their kids in Japan until high school.
One thing to consider down the road is higher education. I was told when applying good schools in the US, the acceptance rates are significantly lower applying from Japan/overseas than applying domestically. In addition, tuitions fees are also higher because even if your kids are US citizens, you need to pay with out of state tuition. It probably varies depending on the state you kids may have to “re-establish” residency again by living there for a few years before they can apply for in-state tuition. I don’t know the situation for universities in other countries but I suspect the acceptance rate part is true for other counties too.
My kids don’t handle changes very well, if we we were to let them go to school in Japan we would let them take IB that’ll make it easier for them to transition to a school in US or other countries later.
I went to colleges in Japan and in US. For higher education, I definitely prefer US.