New International School (Tokyo)

A genuinely bilingual English-Japanese school in Toshima, founded 2001, with multi-age classrooms and two homeroom teachers per class working as equals.

NewIS runs a dual-language model that sets it apart in Tokyo. Two homeroom teachers, one English, one Japanese, plan and report together, and children learn core subjects through both languages from age three. The school added secondary years from 2014 and now runs through Grade 12, with CIS and Middle States accreditation. Mandarin and violin start around age six.

Parents who stay tend to be families who want their children to come out of school properly fluent in both languages, and the model delivers that more reliably than English-medium schools with a Japanese-as-a-foreign-language strand. The classrooms are well resourced, with interactive whiteboards and instruments in each homeroom. The trade-off is a small student body and a sometimes uneven teaching staff, parents have noted variation between the Japanese and English-track teachers. For genuine bilingualism it remains one of Tokyo's stronger options.

• Dual-language English-Japanese school in Minami-Ikebukuro, founded in 2001 specifically for long-term international and mixed-heritage families in Tokyo, accredited through grade 12 by MSA and CIS.
• Parents repeatedly describe a warm, accessible community. One parent who toured Tokyo schools called it "by far the most interesting and innovative" of the schools they visited. Communication and parent involvement, conferences, learning celebrations and volunteering, are described as substantive.
• The dual-language model is the defining feature. Two teachers of equal status per class, one in English and one in Japanese, teach core subjects together. Parents who graduate children describe genuine bilingualism rather than token Japanese.
• Multiage classes (typically two or three year groups together) are well-received by parents who value the social mix and peer-teaching dynamic, but the structure isn't for every family.
• A minority of parents flag unevenness on the Japanese side. Some report Japanese teachers showing favouritism or being harder to engage with than the foreign teachers.