United School of Tokyo

A small parent-founded American curriculum school in Tomigaya, Shibuya, serving K1 through grade 8 with a tight community feel and notably lower fees than the larger Tokyo names.

UST opened in 2014 and now runs roughly 220 students across kindergarten, elementary and middle school, with classes capped around 16. The programme follows American Common Core standards, with Math in Focus for elementary maths and the Reading and Writing Workshop model for literacy. Daily Japanese instruction follows the Japanese national curriculum. The student body spans more than 40 nationalities.

Parents consistently flag the community feel, the principal who knows every family by name, and the warmth of the staff. Children get more individual attention than at the larger names. The trade-off is scale. Outdoor space is limited, classrooms are small, and the school stops at grade 8 so families need a plan for high school. Tuition has been creeping up year on year but remains well below ASIJ, BST and Sacred Heart.

• Parents are mostly positive about the close-knit community, supportive teachers, diversity, and relatively accessible fees. Several parents describe children settling well and being known by staff.
• Facilities are the recurring weakness. Negative parent signal points to small classrooms, limited outdoor space, and resource constraints.
• Staff comments broadly match the parent split: a warm, child-centred school with good families and supportive colleagues, but growing pains, heavy workload, limited facilities, and some management inconsistency.