Cities / Tokyo / American School in Japan
American School in Japan
One of Asia's oldest American schools, founded in 1902. WASC-accredited with a full American college-prep programme, Advanced Placement courses and 170+ co-curriculars. The Chofu main campus draws families who want scale and continuity in the American system; the ELC in…
In brief
Tokyo's heritage American school, founded in 1902, with a fourteen-acre Chofu campus and a separate early-learning centre in Roppongi. The default pick for US-track diplomats, executives, and corporate-quota families.
ASIJ runs roughly 1,700 students aged three to eighteen across the two sites. The programme is American with AP, WASC accredited, and a long bench of facilities, athletics, and arts that few schools in Japan can match. University outcomes track to selective US destinations.
Families describe a confident, well-resourced school with strong global standards and a tight community. Honest notes from current families centre on the bus ride. Chofu is a genuine commute from central Tokyo, and primary children sometimes struggle with motion sickness on the long routes. Late returns make weekday extracurriculars off-campus harder to schedule. Fees sit near the top of the Tokyo market. Sibling households can plan for annual costs in the eight to ten million yen range.
Fees
| Fee | Age | Type | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nursery - Pre-Kindergarten | 3 | Annual | $3,237,000 |
| Kindergarten - Grade 5 | 5 | Annual | $3,519,000 |
| Grade 6 - Grade 8 | 11 | Annual | $3,675,000 |
| Grade 9 - Grade 12 | 14 | Annual | $3,783,000 |
| Application Fee | One-time | $50,000 | |
| Registration Fee | One-time | $300,000 | |
| Building Maintenance Fee | One-time | $1,525,000 |
Reviews
- Tokyo's most established American international school. Posters routinely place it in international teaching's top tier alongside Singapore American School and International School Bangkok.
- Selectivity has tightened as Tokyo's international school market expands. ASIJ reportedly received over 1,000 applications for around 20 to 23 teaching positions in one recent hiring cycle.
- Strong technology and AI-in-education profile. One teacher posted that ASIJ is "doing some very cool work with ed tech and AI."
- Big-school feel with deep co-curricular catchment. Parents who picked it over smaller Tokyo schools cite size, sports and the breadth that comes with it.
- Significant historical safeguarding scandal hangs over the school. The Jack Moyer abuse cover-up, decades of incidents formally acknowledged by the school in 2015, still surfaces in any thread that goes deep on ASIJ's history. Survivor advocacy site asijsurvivors.org remains active.
- Drug-and-substance-use chatter persists in the local international-school grapevine. One Tokyo teacher said students at other schools "talk about the drugs and crime at ASIJ."
- One former Japanese parent who looked at the school and walked away said spoken-Japanese and core-academic levels (especially mathematics) sat "way below Japanese public school level standards" in their judgement.
- Tuition runs around 2.8 to 3.3 million yen per child per year.
Head of school
Amy Zuber Meehan
Eric F Niles joined ASIJ in 2025 as the Head of School, bringing more than 25 years of experience in leadership roles within independent schools. His extensive background includes a 15-year tenure as the Head of The Athenian School in Danville, California, and a role as Assistant Head at Emma Willard School in New York. Before his career in education, Eric served as counsel to a subcommittee of the US House of Representatives. He holds a BS in Economics from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and a law degree from UCLA. He is also a Zen Buddhist and has served on the board of the Interfaith Council of Contra Costa County.
Accreditations
- Western Association of Schools and Colleges (Accrediting Commission for Schools) 01