, 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. One nihonjin gakkō, Shanghai Japanese School, has a senior high school program.
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. The first postwar Japanese overseas school was the Japanese School of Bangkok, which opened in 1956.
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.
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. 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, 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.
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.