, also called Japanese school, is a full-day school outside Japan intended primarily for Japanese citizens living abroad. It is an expatriate school designed for children whose parents are working on diplomatic, business, or education missions overseas and have plans to repatriate to Japan.
The schools offer exactly the same curriculum used in public elementary and junior high schools in Japan, so when the students go back to Japan, they will not fall behind in the class. Some schools accept Japanese citizens only; others welcome Japanese-speaking students regardless of citizenship.
They are accredited by Japan's Ministry of education and science and receive funding from the Japanese government. There were 85 schools worldwide as of April 2006, and all of these schools provide English classes in the primary education.
Every school hires teachers from Japan on a two- to three-year assignment, but they also hire people from the local community as Japanese-speaking teachers, English and other language instructors, administrative assistants, gardeners, janitors and security guards.
Nihonjin gakkō serve elementary school and junior high school.Mizukami, Tetsuo. The sojourner community [electronic resource]: Japanese migration and residency in Australia (Volume 10 of Social sciences in Asia, v. 10). BRILL, 2007. , 9789004154797. p. 136. One nihonjin gakkō, Shanghai Japanese School, has a senior high school program."（※4）文部科学大臣認定等在外教育施設（高等部を設置するもの）一覧（平成25年4月1日現在）" (). Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Retrieved on March 1, 2015.
Schools that partially offer the nihonjin gakkō's curriculum after school hours or on weekends are sometimes called Japanese schools, too, but strictly speaking they are categorized as hoshū jugyō kō or hoshūkō, a supplementary school. Overseas Japanese schools operated by private educational institutions are not classified as nihonjin gakkō, but instead as .
History
Some of the nihonjin gakkō in Asia have a long history, originally established as public schools in the Japan-occupied territories in Thailand, Philippines, and Taiwan.
As Japan recovered after World War II, increased numbers of Japanese international schools serving elementary and junior high school levels opened around the world.Iwasaki, Toshio. "Japanese Schools Take Root Overseas." Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry. Japan Economic Foundation (JEF, Kokusai Keizai Kōryū Zaidan), No. 5, 1991. Contributed to Google Books by the JEF. p. 24. "The number of overseas elementary and junior high schools for Japanese children has increased in postwar years in parallel with the growth of the Japanese economy and the surge in the number of Japanese corporate employees dispatched abroad. However, there was no senior Japanese high school outside Japan until Rikkyo School in England was founded in 1972 in the suburbs of London. It remained the only overseas Japanese senior high school for the next 14 years." The first postwar Japanese overseas school was the Japanese School of Bangkok, which opened in 1956. Fukuda, Makiko. "El Collegi Japonès de Barcelona: un estudi pilot sobre les ideologies lingüístiques d'una comunitat expatriada a Catalunya" (Archive). Treballs de sociolingüística catalana, 2005: 18 (2004). See profile at Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert (RACO). p. 216. "Des que es va establir el col.legi japones de Bangkok l'any 1956, actualment sumen 83 escoles a 50 paisos d' arreu del món." and "El seu currículum escolar segueix el que disposa el Ministeri perque els nens no trobin inconvenients quan tornin al Japó (Goodman, 1993). Amb alguna excepció, la majoria no són oberts als nens no japonesos" and "La llengua vehicular d'instrucció és el japones, i generalment, s'imparteixen les classes de la llengua local, juntament amb les d'angles." and "S'observa una certa tendencia depenent de l'area: en els pa'isos asiatics, o de Proxim i Mig Orient, s'observa una tendencia a triar els col.legis japonesos, mentre que a Europa i als Estats Units la majoria prefereixen enviar els nens a escoles locals."
The Ministry of Education of Japan, as of 1985, encouraged the development of nihonjin gakkō, in developing countries, while it encouraged the opening of hoshū jugyō kō, or part-time supplementary schools, in developed countries. However, some Japanese parents in developed countries, in addition to those in developing countries, campaigned for the opening of nihonjin gakkō in developed countries due to concern about the education of their children.Goodman, Roger. "The changing perception and status of kikokushijo." In: Goodman, Roger, Ceri Peach, Ayumi Takenaka, and Paul White (editors). Global Japan: The Experience of Japan's New Immigrant and Overseas Communities. Routledge, June 27, 2005. p. 179. "Official policy (see Monbusho, 1985) was that Nihonjingakko should be set up in developing countries, hoshuko in the developed world."
In 1971, there were 22 nihonjin gakkō worldwide. During the postwar rapid economic growth in the 1950s to early 1970s and the Japanese asset price bubble in the 1980s, the country gained economic power and many sogo shoshas and major industries sent their employees all over the world. That was when many nihonjin gakko were established to educate their children in Asia, Europe, Middle East, North, Central and South America. The number of nihonjin gakkō increased to 80 in 1986 with the opening of Japanese schools in Barcelona and Melbourne. As of May of that year 968 teachers from Japan were teaching at these Japanese schools worldwide. That month 15,811 students were enrolled in those schools."Section 4. Well-Being of Japanese Nationals Overseas" (). Diplomatic Bluebook 1987 Japan's Diplomatic Activities. Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved on March 8, 2015. The number of nihonjin gakkō increased to 82 by 1987.
In the early 1980s, 40% of Japanese national children living in Europe attended nihonjin gakkō, while almost 95% of Japanese national children living abroad in Asia attended nihonjin gakkō.
Many Japanese parents abroad sent their children to Japan to attend high school after they completed the junior high school abroad, or leaving the children behind, so they could become accustomed to the difficult Japanese university entrance systems. Toshio Iwasaki, the editor of the Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry, stated that this reason inhibited the development of Japanese senior high schools in other countries. The first overseas international schools that served the senior high school level were the Rikkyo School in England, gaining senior high school level classes after 1975,"INFORMATION IN ENGLISH." () Rikkyo School in England. Retrieved on 8 January 2014. "Guildford Road, Rudgwick, W-Sussex RH12 3BE ENGLAND" and the Lycée Seijo in France, which opened in 1986. By 1991, Japanese international senior high schools were in operation in the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Germany, Denmark, and Ireland.
By 1991 many overseas Japanese high schools were accepting students who were resident in Japan, and some wealthier families in Japan chose to send their children to Japanese schools abroad instead of Japanese schools in Japan.Iwasaki, Toshio. "Japanese Schools Take Root Overseas." Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry. Japan Economic Foundation (JEF, Kokusai Keizai Kōryū Zaidan), No. 5, 1991. Contributed to Google Books by the JEF. p. 25.
While Japan was experiencing a major recession called the Lost Decade in the 1990s, so were nihonjin gakkō. Many of them were closed due to a dramatic decrease in enrollment.
With its rapidly growing economy, China is an exception. Schools in Beijing, Shanghai and have been expanding and new schools had founded in Dalian, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Qingdao, Suzhou since 1991.
By 2004, there were 83 Japanese day schools in 50 countries.
Characteristics
Nihonjin gakkō use Japanese as their language of instruction. The curriculum is approved by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) so that students may easily adjust upon returning to Japan. For foreign language classes, each school usually teaches English and, if different, a major local language of the country. Fukuda, Makiko. "El Col·legi Japonès de Barcelona: un estudi pilot sobre les ideologies lingüístiques d'una comunitat expatriada a Catalunya" (Archive). Treballs de sociolingüística catalana > 2005: 18 (2004). See profile at Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert (RACO). p. 218: "El col·legi Japones de Barcelona, així com els altres col.legis japonesos, realitzen l'ensenyament de la llengua "local" (per a ells aquesta és el castella) i de l'angles a mes del japones. " Most nihonjin gakkō do not admit people lacking Japanese citizenship. This practice differs from those of American and British international schools, which do admit students of other nationalities.Pang, Ching Lin (彭靜蓮, Pinyin: Péng Jìnglián; Catholic University of Leuven Department of Anthropology). "Controlled internationalization: The case of kikokushijo from Belgium." International Journal of Educational Research. Volume 23, Issue 1, 1995, Pages 45–56. Available online 20 January 2000. DOI 10.1016/0883-0355(95)93534-3. CITED: p. 48. "The curriculum of the Nihonjin Gakko[...]One particular feature, which sets it apart from other "international" American or British schools, is that it has only Japanese pupils and students." Nihonjin gakkō usually use the Japanese academic calendar instead of those of their host countries.Fischel, William A. Making the Grade: The Economic Evolution of American School Districts. University of Chicago Press, 15 November 2009. , 9780226251318. p. 132.
Tendencies
As of 2005–2007, parents of Japanese nationality residing in the United States and Europe, as well as other industrialized and developed regions,Mizukami, Tetsuo. The sojourner community [electronic resource]: Japanese migration and residency in Australia (Volume 10 of Social sciences in Asia, v. 10). BRILL, 2007. , 9789004154797. p. 139. generally prefer local schools over nihonjin gakkō, while Japanese parents in Asia and the Middle East prefer nihonjin gakkō.
In 2003 11,579 Japanese students living in Asia (outside Japan) attended full-time Japanese schools, making up more than 70% of the Japanese students in Asia.Mizukami, Tetsuo. The sojourner community [electronic resource]: Japanese migration and residency in Australia (Volume 10 of Social sciences in Asia, v. 10). BRILL, 2007. , 9789004154797. p. 138. In Oceania, 194 Japanese pupils attended full-time Japanese schools, making up 7.7% of the total Japanese students in Oceania.Mizukami, Tetsuo. The sojourner community [electronic resource]: Japanese migration and residency in Australia (Volume 10 of Social sciences in Asia, v. 10). BRILL, 2007. , 9789004154797. p. 138-139. In North America there were 502 students at full-time Japanese schools, making up 2.4% of Japanese pupils on that continent. As of 2007, there were a total of three nihonjin gakkō on the U.S. mainland recognized by MEXT.Kano, Naomi. "Japanese Community Schools: New Pedagogy for a Changing Population" (Chapter 6). In: García, Ofelia, Zeena Zakharia, and Bahar Otcu (editors). Bilingual Community Education and Multilingualism: Beyond Heritage Languages in a Global City (Volume 89 of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism). Multilingual Matters, 2012. , 9781847698001. START: p. 99. CITED: p. 103.
Since the early 1990s, more parents have chosen a local school or an international school over nihonjin gakkō. Reasons include: The parents prefer for their children to receive education in English;