Nihonjin gakko

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This article is about weekday regular Japanese schools outside of Japan that are accredited by the Japanese government. For accredited Saturday Japanese schools, see all other Japanese schools. For Japanese school, see Nihonjin gakko (disambiguation).

Nihonjin gakkoo (日本人学校 Nihonjin Gakkō), also called Japanese School, is a full day school outside of Japan for native speakers of Japanese. It is an expatriate school, designed for children whose parent is working on a diplomatic, business or educational mission overseas and have a plan to go back to Japan for good.

It offers the exact same curriculum used in public elementary and middle 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.

It is accredited by Japan's Ministry of education and science and receives funding from the Japanese government. Every school has teachers transferred from Japan on a 2 to 3 year assignment. They hire locals as Japanese speaking teachers, English and other language instructors, administrative assistants, gardeners, janitors and security guards. There are 85 schools worldwide as of April 2006,[1] and all of these schools provide English classes in the primary education.

Schools that partially offer the Nihonjin gakko's curriculum after school hours or on weekends are sometimes called Japanese School too, but strictly speaking they are categorized as Hoshu jugyo ko (hoshu ko), a supplementary school.

Contents

[edit] History

Some of Nihonjin gakkoos in Asia have a long history, originally established as a public school in the Japan-occupied territories in Thailand, Philippines and Taiwan. During the postwar rapid economic growth in 1950s to early 1970s and Japanese asset price bubble in 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 gakkos were established to educate their children in Asia, Europe, Middle East, North,Central and South America . While Japan was experiencing a major recession called the Lost decade in 1990s, so were Nihonjin Gakkos. Many of them were closed down due to a dramatic decrease in enrollment.

However, for its rapidly growing economy, China is an exception. Schools in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong have been expanding and new schools had founded in Dalian, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Qingdao, Suzhou since 1990s.

[edit] Locations

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See the complete list here. Nihonjin Gakkos tend to be in the following three types of areas in the world.

  • Area with a big Japanese temporary resident population such as London and New York. Many students are staying only for a few years for their parent's business.
  • Area where English is not the official language such as Düsseldorf, São Paulo, Dubai, and Kuala Lumpur. Many parents would send their child to a local school if they live in an English speaking country.

[edit] Tendencies

Since the early 1990s more parents have chosen a local school or an international school over a Nihonjin gakko.

  • The parents prefer the children to receive education in English.

Nihonjin gakko has only elementary and middle schools (Grade 1 through 9) that are mandatory in Japan. Some offer a kindergarten program, but none offers a high school, which is a big drawback for those who have a high school aged child. The children educated in English environment will be able to continue their education where they live with their parents. Otherwise they need to pass the entrance exam to enroll in a boarding school in Japan or one of the seven(as of October 2006) Japanese boarding schools worldwide.

  • The parents take advantage of the situation and let the children be exposed to local culture and make non-Japanese friends
  • Many of private and public Japanese schools have become flexible and accepts expatriate students by having a separate requirements for admissions or offering exams in English.

[edit] List of Nihonjin Gakkos

As of October 2006[2]

[edit] Asia

[edit] North America

[edit] Central and South America

[edit] Europe

[edit] Africa and Middle East

[edit] Oceania

[edit] Footnotes

Japanese materials

  1. ^ 在外教育施設の概要
  2. ^ 日本人学校及び補習授業校の児童生徒在籍数等
  3. ^ "The New Jersey Japanese School." GreatSchools.
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