Major International School Families in Japan
International schools in Japan fall into a handful of curriculum families, and knowing which family a school belongs to matters more than memorizing any single school's name. Pick the wrong curriculum family and a later move, either out of Japan or into a Japanese university, gets harder than it needed to be.1
Procedures, fees, and requirements can change. Confirm current details at the Tokyo International Schools Portal and each school's official site.
Overview
This article maps the Tokyo-centered major international schools by curriculum family: American, British, French, German, IB-framework, ethnic, and international-curriculum Japanese-private schools, plus the Kansai-region cluster. It is a landscape map, not a ranking; no school here is endorsed over another, and fit for a specific child matters more than prestige.
Most of these schools operate as 各種学校 (kakushū gakkō, "miscellaneous schools"), a legal category under the School Education Act separate from 一条校 (ichijōkō, "Article 1 schools").2 That distinction affects compulsory-education recognition and subsidy access, and it is covered in full in the enrollment-rules article; what matters here is that curriculum family and legal category are two different axes.
The diagram below shows the families at a glance; each section after it fills in the schools.
Because admissions rules, waitlists, and tuition change every school year, treat every school-level fact below as a starting point and confirm it with the school directly before applying.
American-Curriculum Schools
The American-curriculum core in Tokyo is anchored by three long-tenure schools. The American School in Japan (ASIJ) in Chofu is one of Japan's largest and longest-established US-curriculum English-language schools, publishing per-grade tuition from ¥2,987,000 per year (Nursery through Pre-K) to ¥3,533,000 per year (Grades 9 through 12) (as of the 2025-26 school year; confirm current figures with the school).3
The International School of the Sacred Heart, founded in 1908 in Tokyo, is an all-girls kindergarten-through-Grade-12 school accredited by both CIS and WASC, with Advanced Placement courses in high school.4 St. Mary's International School, founded in 1954 in Setagaya, Tokyo, is an all-boys kindergarten-through-Grade-12 school and an IB World School accredited by WASC and CIS, awarding both its own diploma and the IB Diploma.5
Published tuition at St. Mary's runs from ¥2,860,000 per year (Kindergarten) to ¥3,050,000 per year (High School) (as of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government portal listing).1 Single-sex structure is a real variable in this family: two of its three anchor schools are single-sex, so confirm whether that fits the child before shortlisting on curriculum alone.
British-Curriculum Schools
The British-curriculum pathway in Tokyo is led by The British School in Tokyo (BST), which follows a UK-curriculum progression and publishes its fee schedule by school stage. Published tuition runs from ¥2,960,000 per year (Primary: Nursery and Reception) to ¥3,070,000 per year (Secondary Years 10 through 13) (as of the 2026-27 school year; confirm current figures with the school).6
Families considering this track for eventual return to the UK should weigh curriculum continuity directly: a UK-curriculum school keeps a child aligned with the system the child will re-enter. That alignment is the main reason to choose this family over a geographically closer American-curriculum option.
French and German Schools
Tokyo's French-curriculum track is served by the Lycée Français International de Tokyo, and the German-curriculum track by Deutsche Schule Tokyo Yokohama. Both schools teach in their home-country language and follow their home-country curriculum, which makes them the natural first stop for French- and German-speaking families respectively.1
French-network schools connect to the AEFE system and German schools to the German schools-abroad framework, so a transfer within the same national network, to another country, follows established channels. Confirm the details with each school directly.
Saint Maur International School in Yokohama is a Catholic school operating since 1872.7 Confirm its current curriculum and accreditation like any other school rather than treating tenure as a quality signal.
IB-Framework Schools Across Curricula
The International Baccalaureate is not a single national curriculum but a cross-cutting framework: the Primary Years Programme (PYP), Middle Years Programme (MYP), Diploma Programme (DP), and Career-related Programme (CP), each authorized separately by the International Baccalaureate Organization.8
That framework now appears across many Tokyo schools rather than living in one family. St. Mary's offers the IB Diploma alongside its US-curriculum base, Tokyo International School is an IB-framework school in Tokyo, and Yokohama International School publishes its tuition bands by grade from the Early Learning Center through Grade 12 (as of the 2026-27 school year; confirm current figures with the school).519 K. International School Tokyo and Aoba-Japan International School, both in Tokyo, also sit in this IB-oriented space and are profiled below as Japanese-private schools with international curricula.1011
PYP and MYP continuity matters less than which exit credential the school offers: the DP, AP courses, or A-levels determine university options. Check the graduating programme before the entry programme.
Ethnic Schools and International-Curriculum Japanese Private Schools
The ethnic-school subset, principally Tokyo Yokohama Korean School and Tokyo Chinese School, serves families wanting schooling anchored in Korean or Chinese language and curriculum. Directory-level sources confirm the subset exists; admissions details, tuition, and accreditation must be confirmed with each school directly, since published English-language information is thinner here than for the American or British families.1
The international-curriculum Japanese-private subset, including K. International School Tokyo and Aoba-Japan International School, offers internationally oriented curricula from within the Japanese private-school sector.1011 These schools suit families that want an international curriculum without leaving the Japanese-school administrative world entirely, though the exact balance differs school by school.
Kansai-Region Cluster
The Kansai region mirrors Tokyo's families at smaller scale. Canadian Academy in Kobe publishes tuition from ¥2,100,000 per year (Pre-K and Kindergarten A) to ¥3,370,000 per year (Grade 12) (as of the 2026-27 school year; confirm current figures with the school).12 Osaka International School and Marist Brothers International School anchor the wider Kansai cluster alongside it, though families should confirm current details with each school directly, since this article's fetched sources cover Canadian Academy's fee page in depth and the others at directory level.
A Kansai-based family should not assume a Tokyo admissions timeline applies locally. Application windows, waitlist depth, and bus coverage all differ by school, and a school visit answers faster than any directory.
Good to know
Confirm admissions details with each school directly
Admissions rules, waitlists, tuition, and even grade naming differ school by school and change every school year. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government portal profiles, each school's official site, and a direct inquiry to the admissions office form the checking sequence, in that order.1
Curriculum continuity matters most for mobile families
A family likely to depart Japan within a few years should choose the curriculum family of the next posting, not the most convenient campus now. Re-entry friction after a mismatched stint costs more than a longer commute during it.8
Single-sex vs. coeducational structure varies by school
Two anchor schools in the American family are single-sex, while most other families in this article are coeducational. Structure affects daily life as much as curriculum does, so confirm it early rather than discovering it at the school visit.45
See also
- Japanese School vs. International School: Making the Choice
- Compulsory Education in Japan: Rules for Foreign Children
- Public, Private, and National Schools: Japan's School Types
- The International School Decision Framework
- International School Costs in Japan
- International School Accreditation in Japan