Founded in 2001, New International School of Japan offers a new and innovative style of education in the context of international schools in Japan.  Currently serving 160 children from preschool to Grade 10, it is the first international school specifically established to meet the needs of permanent, international marriage, and/or long-term residents of Japan, regardless of nationality, in the clear and research-based recognition that dual language and multiage education is good for children! Families temporarily in Japan but with an interest in Japanese as well as English are also welcome.
 
In addition, the school offers a smooth transition for children moving from a Japanese based educational system to an English one from high school, or vice versa. 
 
At New International School, the children learn bilingually in both English and Japanese through team-taught multiage classes; a resource and thematic-based curriculum; and a combination of whole group, individual, center-based and project-based activities. There are two full time homeroom teachers for fewer than 20 children in each exceptionally well-resourced class room.  Parents are assured of their child’s progress in both languages along developmentally based continuums, through parent seminars, student presentations, student-led conferences, anecdotal reports and portfolios.

The children maintain and develop their social and academic skills, creativity, and independence in a child-centered environment they can participate in with great enthusiasm. The school’s performing arts program includes the violin by the Suzuki Method for all children from age 8 and above.  From age 5 up, physical education includes Tae Kwon Do, and Mandarin Chinese is offered as an elective.  Graduates have entered international high schools, private Japanese high schools and boarding or day schools abroad.  The latter currently include the Putney School and St. Johnsbury Academy in Vermont and Northfield Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts. 

Our school is multiage by design, with a two to three year age range of children in each class, and as such offers a real alternative to the fixed curriculum age grade system which originated in Prussia in the early 1800's and was designed for and belonged to an industrial/factory age, long passed.  Please check the links page of this site for more information on multiage education.

New International School was fully accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools (MSA) at the end of only its fourth year, and recognized as a non-profit School Foundation (Gakko Hojin) at the end of its fifth year. It has been appreciated for its innovative program in a book written by Akutagawa Prize winner, Tomomi Fujiwara, called Chi o Sodate iru to iu Koto (What does growth in knowledge really mean?). 

http://www.fujiwara-t.net/info.html

The school is a member of the Japan Council of International Schools (JCIS), and a founding member of the Tokyo Association of International Preschools (TAIP) and the Corporate Contribution Plan Association (CCPA).

Kazuko Nakajima, Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto, is a consultant to the school's bilingual program, and Professor Sandra Stone, Director of the Multiage Institute at Northern Arizona University, is a consultant to our multiage program.

The school is located near Zoshigaya on the southern, quieter side of Ikebukuro, and it is convenient to numerous train and subway lines.  A school bus is routed from the Hiroo/Azabu/Yoyogi/Shinjuku direction.
 
Interested families are encouraged to visit by appointment.

Steven Parr
Director/Head of School