# best international schools in tokyo/yokohama?



## dallibee

my husband and I and two sons are moving from a posting in kiev Ukraine to a posting in tokyo in November, so now starts the research into best schools and place to live.
I have heard from someone that yokohama international school is excellent. are there other good international schools in tokyo. we are quite prepared to live in yokohama and for my husband to commute if the school and expat housing is very good. where else do the expats live and go to school?


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## larabell

dallibee said:


> ...are there other good international schools in tokyo.


Did it ever occur to you to try Google? When I entered "international school tokyo" into a Google search, I got dozens of listings just on the first page. As for "good", you may want to pick a few and visit them before deciding exactly where to live. I doubt anyone on the list has experience with more than one school.

I knew someone personally who had his kid in St Mary's in Futako-tamagawa-en and spoke highly of the school. I also happen to think that's a nice area to live.

I've read good things about ASIJ in Roppongi but that's second-hand information and living in Roppongi would require a pretty hefty budget.

The Japan With Kids site (see below) has a list of schools and other advice. I've been satisfied with their advice on other subjects before so their list is probably as good as any other.

Japan With Kids - International Schools In Japan

There's plenty of information available if you're willing to do the research.


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## dallibee

thank you larabell for your info. i have researched on the net but always like to get personal opinion from parents at the schools, rather than carefully constructed professional website pages.


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## pasturesnew

*Intl School*

I agree, a quick google and you will find loads, we are in the same position right now, however our 7 year old Son <half Japanese> speaks Japanese..
Our only concern was if we put our Son in an Intl School, it really is a bubble, ie they teach US/UK Curriculum but actually not much Japanese, if your living in Japan you may as well be a part of it, right !. 
Whatsmore unless your on a full expat package annual fees across the board are YEN 2m a year, first year add a further approx YEN 1m to factor in registration and maintenance fees !. 
We are looking in the Meguro area as we understand that there are Japanese Schools who also cater for children who's first language is not Japanese but have experience speaking the language, these are part private and the fees are no more than the Intl Schools..


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## pasturesnew

dallibee said:


> my husband and I and two sons are moving from a posting in kiev Ukraine to a posting in tokyo in November, so now starts the research into best schools and place to live.
> I have heard from someone that yokohama international school is excellent. are there other good international schools in tokyo. we are quite prepared to live in yokohama and for my husband to commute if the school and expat housing is very good. where else do the expats live and go to school?


further to my last, commute from Yokohama to Tokyo city can be long and tough , especially if you work long hours !!. 
My wife who is Japanese and who's brother lives outside of Tokyo and commutes in recommends living along the Den-en-Toshi line, some nice areas to live along this route and the route in to Tokyo is a breeze in comparison...

GL with your move.., we should be there around the same time as you..


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## dallibee

pasturesnew said:


> further to my last, commute from Yokohama to Tokyo city can be long and tough , especially if you work long hours !!.
> My wife who is Japanese and who's brother lives outside of Tokyo and commutes in recommends living along the Den-en-Toshi line, some nice areas to live along this route and the route in to Tokyo is a breeze in comparison...
> 
> GL with your move.., we should be there around the same time as you..


thanks for your advice, we have been communicating with the people from my husband's company and they are also of the view that the commute is too long. they have suggested that we live in hiroo, azabujuban? area in minato ku where they live. 
as for schools, we have to keep our kids in international schools as we relocate, every 1 to 3 years and need to keep a consistency with their syllabus. Having said that they are only 5 and 3 but my 5 year old has already been at kiev international school for 2 years and really likes the international /American school system. my almost 3 year old is fluent in russian so may be a tad confusing to start with a third language now, I wonder if there are any russian schools there.

we are going for a look in mid september so keeping my fingers crossed that I will be able to find a place to live and school in that week.
when we are all there and settled we should go for a drink to celebrate our newbie in tokyo status


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## pasturesnew

dallibee said:


> thanks for your advice, we have been communicating with the people from my husband's company and they are also of the view that the commute is too long. they have suggested that we live in hiroo, azabujuban? area in minato ku where they live.
> as for schools, we have to keep our kids in international schools as we relocate, every 1 to 3 years and need to keep a consistency with their syllabus. Having said that they are only 5 and 3 but my 5 year old has already been at kiev international school for 2 years and really likes the international /American school system. my almost 3 year old is fluent in russian so may be a tad confusing to start with a third language now, I wonder if there are any russian schools there.
> 
> we are going for a look in mid september so keeping my fingers crossed that I will be able to find a place to live and school in that week.
> when we are all there and settled we should go for a drink to celebrate our newbie in tokyo status



Absolutely ! - check out Meguro too, people we have spoken to who have lived in this area speak very highly of it - nestled close to embassies etc.....

see area guide below..

TOKYO LIVING | Area Guide


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## larabell

pasturesnew said:


> Our only concern was if we put our Son in an Intl School, it really is a bubble, ie they teach US/UK Curriculum but actually not much Japanese


That was our reasoning as well. Both my sons were born in Japan and speak fluent Japanese. But neither of us are native Japanese. So I figured that it would be easier for me to help them learn English at home than for either of us to help them learn Japanese.

But it depends on what you mean by "teaching Japanese". The public schools aren't equipped to handle kids who more-or-less speak Japanese but not at a native level. The Japanese they teach is not conversation-level like you'd get at Berlitz, etc. The kids are expected to be past that level before they even show up. Moreover, having kids in a Japanese public school also requires a lot of participation on the part of the parents, all of which is conducted entirely in Japanese. So it's a huge commitment to the language, if not the country.

In our case, the kids were born and raised here and, most likely, will spend most if not all of their lives in Japan. It makes sense to have them learn local customs and social expectations. For families whose stay in Japan is only temporary (even if that means 5 to 10 years), it might make more sense to keep them "in the bubble" in order to make the transition back to Western culture easier.

BTW, not all kids in International schools are ex-pat kids. Some are kids born in other countries to Japanese parents who were on assignment at the time. For them, never having learned the social structure common in Japanese schools, it would be too harsh a transition to drop them into the public school system when the family returns to Japan.


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## larabell

pasturesnew said:


> My wife who is Japanese and who's brother lives outside of Tokyo and commutes in recommends living along the Den-en-Toshi line, some nice areas to live along this route and the route in to Tokyo is a breeze in comparison...


The Toyoko line recently started a new super-express service between Shibuya and Yokohama (which also runs along a subway on the Yokohama side all the way to Chinatown). It takes 25 minutes from Shibuya to Yokohama stations. Which is better will obviously depend on where you live and where you work. But I don't consider 25 minutes to be long at all (I live and work in Tokyo and my commute, when I go into the office, is 70 minutes).

Along the Toyoko line is an area called Jiyugaoka which is popular with ex-pats and, from what I recall, also has at least one International School. If you have a reasonable housing budget, there's an area close to there called Den-en-chofu which is really nice. You can rent Western-style (and size) houses there.

Hiroo and Azabu are also nice places but somewhat expensive (being within the Yamanote loop). I often go to the international supermarket in Hiroo to buy stuff I can't easily get at my local market.

If you're coming on assignment, cost is probably not the major factor. I'd focus on selecting a school and just assume that where there's an International school, there's almost certainly reasonable housing choices nearby.


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## pasturesnew

larabell said:


> The Toyoko line recently started a new super-express service between Shibuya and Yokohama (which also runs along a subway on the Yokohama side all the way to Chinatown). It takes 25 minutes from Shibuya to Yokohama stations. Which is better will obviously depend on where you live and where you work. But I don't consider 25 minutes to be long at all (I live and work in Tokyo and my commute, when I go into the office, is 70 minutes).
> 
> Along the Toyoko line is an area called Jiyugaoka which is popular with ex-pats and, from what I recall, also has at least one International School. If you have a reasonable housing budget, there's an area close to there called Den-en-chofu which is really nice. You can rent Western-style (and size) houses there.
> 
> Hiroo and Azabu are also nice places but somewhat expensive (being within the Yamanote loop). I often go to the international supermarket in Hiroo to buy stuff I can't easily get at my local market.
> 
> If you're coming on assignment, cost is probably not the major factor. I'd focus on selecting a school and just assume that where there's an International school, there's almost certainly reasonable housing choices nearby.


thanks for the info, sorry dallibee didnt mean to hijack the thread, btw whilst Im not coming to Tokyo on an expat deal, my offer is local hire with added extra's, one of these is being part of the Company "rent program", in this case rather than receiving cash towards rent, my rent up to max Yen 4.5m per annum of my salary will be taxed at 6% , sounds a fair deal to me or is this what you would expect at the very least as a local hire ???

Thanks


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## larabell

pasturesnew said:


> ... my offer is local hire with added extra's, one of these is being part of the Company "rent program", in this case rather than receiving cash towards rent, my rent up to max Yen 4.5m per annum of my salary will be taxed at 6% , sounds a fair deal to me or is this what you would expect at the very least as a local hire ???


I assume you meant to say that the company will *pay* your rent and *then* tax you 6% on what they paid. I dunno... that sounds like a sweet deal to me. My company doesn't pay jack toward rent and I haven't heard of many that do (except the really large companies where you're expected to work long hours for low pay and stay with the same company for life).

If they'll pay up to 4.5 million yen per year, that's also sweet. That works out to 35 man-yen (375000) per month. You could probably live in Roppongi for that money or get a 3~4 bedroom place further out. That sounds more like an ex-pat package than a local hire. Perhaps I'm making the wrong assumptions based on your description?


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## dallibee

larabell said:


> The Toyoko line recently started a new super-express service between Shibuya and Yokohama (which also runs along a subway on the Yokohama side all the way to Chinatown). It takes 25 minutes from Shibuya to Yokohama stations. Which is better will obviously depend on where you live and where you work. But I don't consider 25 minutes to be long at all (I live and work in Tokyo and my commute, when I go into the office, is 70 minutes).
> 
> Along the Toyoko line is an area called Jiyugaoka which is popular with ex-pats and, from what I recall, also has at least one International School. If you have a reasonable housing budget, there's an area close to there called Den-en-chofu which is really nice. You can rent Western-style (and size) houses there.
> 
> Hiroo and Azabu are also nice places but somewhat expensive (being within the Yamanote loop). I often go to the international supermarket in Hiroo to buy stuff I can't easily get at my local market.
> 
> If you're coming on assignment, cost is probably not the major factor. I'd focus on selecting a school and just assume that where there's an International school, there's almost certainly reasonable housing choices nearby.


Thanks for all this info, I was ready to give up on yokohama but now I will focus on minato ku but still look in yokohama too as from the research I have found that my favorite school is still YIS. My husband's office is in Minato so it will definitely make sense to live there. Thank you. I certainly know a lot more about tokyo now than I did a week ago, when I found out we were moving there.


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## dallibee

pasturesnew said:


> thanks for the info, sorry dallibee didnt mean to hijack the thread


no problem, any info on Tokyo is good info


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## pasturesnew

larabell said:


> I assume you meant to say that the company will *pay* your rent and *then* tax you 6% on what they paid. I dunno... that sounds like a sweet deal to me. My company doesn't pay jack toward rent and I haven't heard of many that do (except the really large companies where you're expected to work long hours for low pay and stay with the same company for life).
> 
> If they'll pay up to 4.5 million yen per year, that's also sweet. That works out to 35 man-yen (375000) per month. You could probably live in Roppongi for that money or get a 3~4 bedroom place further out. That sounds more like an ex-pat package than a local hire. Perhaps I'm making the wrong assumptions based on your description?



its some sort of tax avoidence I think ???.

Employer wont actually be paying the rent, I wish they did, not on a full expat deal, perhaps I didnt explain it too clearly, basically the rent program I will be in will allow upwards of 4.5 million yen of my salary a year to only be taxed at 6%, depends on what amount of rent I end up paying, ie upwards of max 375k a month, so whilst Company are not paying rent, the reduced tax on income will result in a saving and such a contribution towards rent...


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## larabell

pasturesnew said:


> ...basically the rent program I will be in will allow upwards of 4.5 million yen of my salary a year to only be taxed at 6%, depends on what amount of rent I end up paying...


Hmmm... Interesting program. I've never heard of anything like that before.


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## lsg168

dallibee said:


> Thanks for all this info, I was ready to give up on yokohama but now I will focus on minato ku but still look in yokohama too as from the research I have found that my favorite school is still YIS. My husband's office is in Minato so it will definitely make sense to live there. Thank you. I certainly know a lot more about tokyo now than I did a week ago, when I found out we were moving there.


There are two schools in Yokoahams's Motomachi area (many expats live in this area). 

One is Saint Maur International School, nd the other is Yokoahama international school.

I have heard good words about both of them from my friend and colleagues. 

Motomachi is an established expat area in Yokohama, and there is a station there that will take you to Shibuya station (Toyoko MinatoMirai Line) in 40 minutes (express train).

You can research train schedule on this website hyperdia dot com. The from station is MOTOMACHICHUKAGAI, and to can be any tokyo stations, in my example SHIBUYA.

I was told that international school actually costs more in Yokohama than in Tokyo area.

GL with your relocation.

edit, my post, no url allowed.

the link to school are as follow.
stmaur dot ac dot jp
yis dot ac dot jp


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## thepilotswife

dallibee said:


> Thanks for all this info, I was ready to give up on yokohama but now I will focus on minato ku but still look in yokohama too as from the research I have found that my favorite school is still YIS. My husband's office is in Minato so it will definitely make sense to live there. Thank you. I certainly know a lot more about tokyo now than I did a week ago, when I found out we were moving there.


I have friends that send their son to YIS and they love it. My in-laws used to live in Tokyo(Jiyugaoka area) and commute to Yamato(Past Yokohama) for work. It took about 45min to 1.5hrs, depending. It's definitely doable.


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## pasturesnew

thepilotswife said:


> I have friends that send their son to YIS and they love it. My in-laws used to live in Tokyo(Jiyugaoka area) and commute to Yamato(Past Yokohama) for work. It took about 45min to 1.5hrs, depending. It's definitely doable.


Ive thought about YIS for our little one but being a brit not sure we could handle a yank in the house < rightly or wrongly assuming that majority of kids that go are american ! - just kidding, Ive heard good things about YIS too, looking into this and BST but 3m for 1st year and 2m thereafter is pretty steep, as our son can speak Japanese looking at other alternatives, Japanese private schools etc which are comparable in price....
As has been mentioned on the board it all depends on your long term plans, rigth !, if returning to your home country within x period then you would want your child to be following their home curriculum where possible...

lane: , I used to fly planes


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## dallibee

I would love to send my kids to YIS as it reminds me if the school they go to here in Kiev. but I have discussed it with my husband and I would prefer to live in minato ku so the kids can see their dad not just on weekends. we are coming for a look on the 12th and I am going to look at TIS and the british school, hopefully one of them will excite me. I do not even want to look in yokohama for fear that i will like it so much as I have now made the decision to live in an apartment close to my husband's work. It is going to be a big change for us as in Kiev we live outside the city in a big house with a huge garden but commute times make it really difficult for my husband to get home before the kids go to sleep and he leaves in the morning before they wake up.


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## larabell

dallibee said:


> ...but I have discussed it with my husband and I would prefer to live in minato ku so the kids can see their dad not just on weekends.


Just one more comment for the record (in case anyone else is following this thread or happens to run across it in the archive)...

Minato-ku covers a fairly large portion of Southeast Tokyo. It might help to know which station is closest to your husband's company. At first I thought "Roppongi" but I couldn't find mention of that in the thread -- unfortunately, we seem to have three separate threads for folks moving to Tokyo, all running concurrently. Maybe someone else mentioned Roppongi earlier .

Anyway, from what I can tell, YIS is only 30 minutes from Shinagawa and 59 minutes from Roppongi, both of which are in Minato-ku -- and yet it would take at least 17 minutes to get from one to the other (ie: Roppongi to Shinagawa). So exactly how much extra time it takes to go all the way to YIS will depend greatly upon where your journey begins.

But it's almost certain that affordable stand-alone houses will be more plentiful in Yokohama than in Minato-ku.


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## dallibee

larabell said:


> Just one more comment for the record (in case anyone else is following this thread or happens to run across it in the archive)...
> 
> 
> Anyway, from what I can tell, YIS is only 30 minutes from Shinagawa and 59 minutes from Roppongi, both of which are in Minato-ku -- and yet it would take at least 17 minutes to get from one to the other (ie: Roppongi to Shinagawa). So exactly how much extra time it takes to go all the way to YIS will depend greatly upon where your journey begins.
> 
> .


my husband's office is apparently between kamiyacho and Onarimon stations ? which looks like the further side of minato ku from yokohama. A friend of mine here in Kiev was in tokyo before here and she live in den en chofu in a house so we may see some houses there, then maybe it would be viable to send the kids to YIS and my husband not having too much commuting time?


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## larabell

dallibee said:


> my husband's office is apparently between kamiyacho and Onarimon stations ? which looks like the further side of minato ku from yokohama.


Not necessarily... at least not if you follow the trains rather than the geography. Either station is on a more-or-less direct route to Den-en-chofu -- via different routes (30 mins from Kamiyacho, 28 from Onarimon). I say more-or-less because the subway lines that stop at those stations connect with different lines in the Tokyu private rail system and I'm fairly certain that some but not all trains would run straight through (while others might require one same-platform change or, in some cases, letting a more local train go by and waiting for the next one). And Den-en-chofu is only 26 mins from Motomachi (where YIS claims to be).

I visited someone in Den-en-chofu a long time ago and it struck me as a really nice area with many stand-alone houses. But it's also probably somewhat on the high end of the scale, rent-wise. Jiyugaoka is also very nice, had somewhat of an international community last I knew, and is slightly closer to Tokyo along the Toyoko-sen (which would definately favor Kamiyacho over Onarimon on the Tokyo end).

I'm going to stop now because it strikes me that there are so many viable choices, making the list any longer isn't going to help...


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## kbtokyo

dallibee said:


> my husband and I and two sons are moving from a posting in kiev Ukraine to a posting in tokyo in November, so now starts the research into best schools and place to live.
> I have heard from someone that yokohama international school is excellent. are there other good international schools in tokyo. we are quite prepared to live in yokohama and for my husband to commute if the school and expat housing is very good. where else do the expats live and go to school?


Welcome to YOKOHAMA! Great place to live ...
I tutor a few students from YIS and St. Maur which are both excellent schools and they go all the way up to high school. I have also talked to a few parents from both schools and they say that compared to Tokyo... Yokohama has a little more laid back feel...


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## mikey10

I went to Yokohama International School, albeit over 20 years ago. It was the best time of my life. Great school and it has expanded a great deal over the years with many new facilities. Yamate-cho is also a very nice place to live - there are many expat houses in the area. Great shopping street (motomachi), China town and minato mirai nearby.


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## JoelinJapan

*Looking for Japanese school in International community in Tokyo/Yokohama*



pasturesnew said:


> We are looking in the Meguro area as we understand that there are Japanese Schools who also cater for children who's first language is not Japanese but have experience speaking the language, these are part private and the fees are no more than the Intl Schools..


HI Pastures new

We are in a similar situation - we have just moved to Japan from the UK to give our 5 year old experience of living in Japan as his mother is Japanese. We want him to go to a normal Japanese school but preferably in a community where there is a foreign population so that he is not the only foreign child in his class.
We also heard that Meguro was pretty mixed; what have you managed to find out since this comment? We are looking in between Yokohama and Tokyo - anywhere fine but do not have a massive budget for housing.
What are hte best areas?
Thanks
Joel


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## pasturesnew

JoelinJapan said:


> HI Pastures new
> 
> We are in a similar situation - we have just moved to Japan from the UK to give our 5 year old experience of living in Japan as his mother is Japanese. We want him to go to a normal Japanese school but preferably in a community where there is a foreign population so that he is not the only foreign child in his class.
> We also heard that Meguro was pretty mixed; what have you managed to find out since this comment? We are looking in between Yokohama and Tokyo - anywhere fine but do not have a massive budget for housing.
> What are hte best areas?
> Thanks
> Joel


Hi Joel, 

We have taken the Japanese Elementary School route, in this case - Akasaka Elementary School. We will also be living in the area. Looking at this as a short term solution , ie 2 years or so, will review after 1st year. 
Schools in Minato-Ku district tend to have better facilities, in this case Akasaka Elementary is pretty modern by Japanese standards, ie indoor pool, gym etc , and there are a number of mixed Japanese children that go too...
For sure we like Meguro area but I work long hours and cant be hassled with the commute right now. Ok we are paying 300K + a month for 2LDK but no stress involved with commuting.. Indeed we found as far as 45 mins out and more the rent was equal to that of what we are paying for the same size space. 
If you want to catch up for a drink, swap ideas, chill out - let me know...
regards


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