Hey all, I’ve been trying to move to japan for many years now but with Covid and lack of opportunity for affordable schooling for children I have not been able to move yet. My kids are in 11th and 8th grade they are both fluent in Japanese but not at the grade level of their peers so public school would not be possible.
Looking for an affordable international school or English school program, the international schools we have checked out are about $25k-$35k per year. I was thinking about doing a home schooling program from the US and then moving but really haven’t pursued that.
I’ve heard of companies hiring staff and paying for international schools but I’m an RN, BSN and don’t think I can work in a hospital in Japan. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
TIA.
We have family and a home available to us in Choufu Japan.
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/15kxi2l/wanting_to_move_to_japan/
5 comments
They are fluent?
Due to the cost of international schools in Japan, you generally have to either be an expat where the company is footing the bill, or be wealthy enough to afford the tuition.
Trying some kind of home schooling wouldn’t be doing your kids any favors, plus Japan doesn’t allow home schooling, so you’d be violating truancy laws.
Even if your kids aren’t natively fluent (i.e. able to read/write equivalent to their peers in Japan), you could look into 帰国子女 status: Japanese children that come back to Japan after having lived several years overseas can be granted this status, which qualifies them for more lenient requirements for Japanese test scores and stricter requirements for English proficiency.
But my personal recommendation? As old as your kids are already, just wait until your youngest graduates HS and then move to Japan.
Check out r/movingtojapan
Is your husband/wife Japanese ?
Visa option may be spouse of a Japanese national visa.
For schooling, honestly home schooling is the best option however at 11th and 8th grade do you have the mathematics and science ability to teach them??
For public schools in Japan – my experience is that the 8th grader will adapt to Japanese language but 11th grade is too old to pick up Japanese at such a critical time (leaving school exams). You don’t want to mess that up.
It might be better to wait until your youngest graduates school, as difficult as that might be.
How did your kids learn Japanese?? Impressive!
I would strongly advice against the international schools. You won’t be doing your kids any favors in terms of improving their Japanese. Also, as you noticed, those schools are expensive, and that doesn’t end with the tuition fee. Even if you get help with that somehow, you’ll get hit with a ton of other expenses you won’t be able to get out off.
They’ll catch up quicker on their Japanese than you think in public school. Being forced to use the language constantly is the best way to improve.