Attending any international or independent school can be an expensive business. Not only do you have the fees to pay for, but also an expensive uniform, extra-curricular clubs and lessons, lunches, and buses. The list goes on…Here in Tokyo, there is also the hefty non-refundable upfront costs which are required before your child even steps over the school building threshold.
For me, as a parent coming from the UK to Tokyo and looking for an international school, the process was in some ways similar to looking for an independent school in the UK. It involved the researching of schools, deciding on the important selection criteria and matching to a manageable budget. However, the biggest difference between an independent school in the UK and an international school here in Tokyo was the upfront costs. In the UK, generally independent schools request an application fee when applying for a school, and most also require a refundable deposit on enrolment which is paid back on leaving the school. Aside from these things there are no other additional costs, and the fees are straightforward with termly fees paid in addition to perhaps, lunch fees, as well as an initial outlay for uniform.
However, here in Tokyo (and this may be the case in international schools across the world), the fee set-up is quite different; it’s a bit like buying a house and paying a mortgage. You pay an initial down payment to the school, then termly/semester payments. The concept of the upfront payment seems to be an engrained part of Japanese culture. You see it when registering for any club, for example, my son’s baseball club, and also when renting an apartment where the concept of ‘key money’ (usually an additional one month’s rent which is payable to the landlord) is quite common. Therefore, families looking to send their child to international school need to have considered this extra financial burden before finalising their choice of school.
As previously said, the majority of Tokyo international schools will have some sort of initial costs and these costs usually fall into three areas: application, registration, and development. The application fee is a fee for processing your application, even if you are not offered a place. It goes toward the cost of the time it takes to consider your application and the level of input needed from admissions teams or the senior leadership in the school. This includes reading your child’s school report and letters of recommendation, as well as undertaking any interviews. On average, you can expect to pay anything between ¥10,000 and ¥40,000, with only a handful of schools charging less than this or nothing at all.
Once your child has been offered a place, you will be required to pay a registration fee (sometimes called the enrolment fee). This is a non-refundable fee which allows your child to be formally enrolled in the school. In Tokyo international schools this can cost anything from ¥20,000 to ¥600,00 with most schools typically falling in the ¥300,000 to ¥400,000 range. Some schools are a little higher, but this is because they do not charge a third fee, the development or building fee (or sometimes called an educational resource fee).
This third fee is again non-refundable, and is used to pay for building maintenance, building development and educational materials. It is what helps schools continue to develop their facilities, expand, and generally keep up to date with the changes and expectations of educational establishments. As mentioned, some schools roll this fee into their registration fee, but for those schools which do have it, it can be anything up to ¥1,000,000, with most schools averaging between ¥200,000 and ¥600,000. Again, there are a small number of schools who charge less than this, but these are generally the smaller less-publicised schools. This latter fee also becomes an annual fee but at a decreased amount. Typically, this is around ¥100,000 per year.
Therefore, returning to the analogy of owning a house; you should see these upfront costs as a long-term investment. If you are planning for the long term in terms of your child’s education, and you apportion these initial costs over several years of attendance at a particular school, then it does not seem so bad; however, it’s a hefty sum for a short-term plan. As a parent, making the right decisions about your child’s education, taking into account your present circumstances and future plans, is of crucial importance, especially when you consider the sums of money involved.
For a breakdown of the costs of all the Tokyo international schools, please see our international school database.