School fees in Japan

As my eldest is approaching 4 years of age, he will soon be starting at 幼稚園 (nursery school), and I decided it was time to sit down with Excel for the afternoon and work out how much this school business is going to cost me.

I researched 3 different options: public schools, private schools and international schools. I based my calculations over 19 years, from the year of starting at nursery school to the year of graduating university. (based on a 4 year degree course, anyway).

I give you my summary below:

Public School: 707,500JPY average each year, per child, for 19 years
Private School: 1,197,500JPY average each year, per child, for 19 years
International School: 1,985,000JPY each year, per child, for 19 years

Now there are a lot of possible combinations of these above three. For example, the competition for places at public high schools and universities can be quite severe, meaning that you may be forced to going with the private school route to secure an adequate level of education for your child.

The maths I used to come up with the above figures is shown below:

Age	School	Public	Private	International
4	幼稚園	￥300,000	￥300,000	￥300,000
5	幼稚園	￥300,000	￥300,000	￥300,000
6	幼稚園	￥300,000	￥300,000	￥300,000
7	小学校1年	￥350,000	￥1,000,000	￥2,000,000
8	小学校2年	￥350,000	￥1,000,000	￥2,000,000
9	小学校3年	￥350,000	￥1,000,000	￥2,000,000
10	小学校4年	￥350,000	￥1,000,000	￥2,000,000
11	小学校5年	￥350,000	￥1,000,000	￥2,000,000
12	小学校6年	￥350,000	￥1,000,000	￥2,000,000
13	中学校1年	￥500,000	￥1,300,000	￥2,000,000
14	中学校2年	￥500,000	￥1,300,000	￥2,000,000
15	中学校3年	￥500,000	￥1,300,000	￥2,000,000
16	高校1年	￥550,000	￥1,050,000	￥2,000,000
17	高校2年	￥550,000	￥1,050,000	￥2,000,000
18	高校3年	￥550,000	￥1,050,000	￥2,000,000
19	大学校1年	￥2,000,000	￥2,500,000	￥3,700,000
20	大学校2年	￥2,000,000	￥2,500,000	￥3,700,000
21	大学校3年	￥2,000,000	￥2,500,000	￥3,700,000
22	大学校4年	￥2,000,000	￥2,500,000	￥3,700,000
	Total	￥14,150,000	￥23,950,000	￥39,700,000
	Average Yearly	￥707,500	￥1,197,500	￥1,985,000

Now the above does not take into account of Juku, 塾, or cram school. Many children at Japanese school, particularly those at public school, will attend Juku for at least the year before Juken, 受験 , or enternace examinations before high school or university. My research showed that a year of cram school is around 500,000JPY, meaning you are potentially looking at an extra 3,000,000JPY if your child attends Juku during all 6 years of junior high and high school.

For those really into numbers, (and those who don't mind kanji), I created a matrix showing combinations of public/private/international/juku.

小	中	高	大	塾	合計	平均年費
公立	公立	公立	公立	N	￥12,150,000	￥639,474
公立	公立	公立	公立	J1	￥15,150,000	￥797,368
公立	公立	公立	公立	J2	￥14,650,000	￥771,053
公立	公立	公立	公立	J3	￥14,150,000	￥744,737
公立	公立	公立	私立	N	￥14,150,000	￥744,737
公立	公立	公立	私立	J1	￥17,150,000	￥902,632
公立	公立	公立	私立	J2	￥16,650,000	￥876,316
公立	公立	公立	私立	J3	￥16,150,000	￥850,000
公立	公立	私立	公立	N	￥13,650,000	￥718,421
公立	公立	私立	公立	J1	￥16,150,000	￥850,000
公立	公立	私立	公立	J2	￥16,150,000	￥850,000
公立	公立	私立	公立	J3	￥15,650,000	￥823,684
公立	公立	私立	私立	N	￥15,650,000	￥823,684
公立	公立	私立	私立	J1	￥18,650,000	￥981,579
公立	公立	私立	私立	J2	￥18,150,000	￥955,263
公立	公立	私立	私立	J3	￥17,650,000	￥928,947
公立	私立	公立	公立	N	￥14,550,000	￥765,789
公立	私立	公立	公立	J1	￥17,550,000	￥923,684
公立	私立	公立	公立	J2	￥17,050,000	￥897,368
公立	私立	公立	公立	J3	￥15,650,000	￥823,684
公立	私立	公立	私立	N	￥16,550,000	￥871,053
公立	私立	公立	私立	J1	￥18,650,000	￥981,579
公立	私立	公立	私立	J2	￥19,050,000	￥1,002,632
公立	私立	公立	私立	J3	￥18,550,000	￥976,316
公立	私立	私立	公立	N	￥16,050,000	￥844,737
公立	私立	私立	公立	J1	￥19,050,000	￥1,002,632
公立	私立	私立	公立	J2	￥18,550,000	￥976,316
公立	私立	私立	公立	J3	￥18,050,000	￥950,000
公立	私立	私立	私立	N	￥18,050,000	￥950,000
公立	私立	私立	私立	J1	￥21,050,000	￥1,107,895
公立	私立	私立	私立	J2	￥20,550,000	￥1,081,579
公立	私立	私立	私立	J3	￥18,050,000	￥950,000
公立	公立	国際	私立	N	￥18,500,000	￥973,684
公立	公立	国際	国際	N	$23,300,000.00	￥1,226,316
公立	国際	国際	国際	N	￥27,800,000	￥1,463,158
国際	国際	国際	国際	N	￥37,700,000	￥1,984,211

The above Juku codes are:

-N: No Juku
-J1: 6 years of Juku
-J2: 5 years of Juku
-J3: 4 years of Juku

Please also note that the above calculations take into account 2,000,000JPY "insurance payouts" we expect from our Educational Insurance Policy 教育保険 with the post office. I.e. the totals are reduced by 2,000,000JPY in anticipation of the windfall.

My research for the costs was based on a anfternoon searching around the Japanese Internet for terms such as 教育費用.

For those interested

http://www.nomu.com/loan/lifeplan/k_education_01.html
http://money.goo.ne.jp/lifeplan/learning/fi63ag000000ucp3.html
http://www.babytown.jp/magazine/money/02/index.html
http://allabout.co.jp/finance/gc/10690/

Please note that the above 4 links are only a small sample of those I used as a basis for calculations. One thing that made things difficult, is that while the official Government (MEXT) statistics seem to understate the total burden, the numerous insurance companies I came across seem to be overstating.

For my figures, I opted to overstate rather than understate. It is my intention to calculate the true burden of sending children to school, including: school fees, school lunch, uniform, school trips, textbooks, tests, stationary, transport, insurance etc. I hope the above is an accurate reflection of that. For me, time will tell.

Return to the Steam Age: An outing to Ome Railway Park

Summary

**Has parking**Northeast Tokyo**For Elementary School Kids**Half day Activity**Admission 100yen for over 6 years**9:15-17:00**Closed Monday**

Website

Ome Railway Park

Location/Access


View Larger Map

By Train: From Tokyo, take the Chuo line from Tachikawa 立川 which connects with the Ome line 青梅線. Head for Ome Station. From the station, it is either a 15 minute walk or taxi to the park, as there is no bus.

By Car: There is free car parking available next to the park. We took the Chuo Road 中央道 from central Tokyo out the Hachioji Interchange 八王子 I.C. From there it was around 30-45 minutes to the park.

Activities



There are a number of real life trains in the park, ranging from old steam trains, all the way to a (relatively) modern Shinkansen. You are free to walk around the park, and you may climb up right into the driver's seat inside the trains. Here you can see the dials, levers, buttons etc. that were used to power these once mighty machines.



However, this gets old pretty fast, but fortunately there are a number of scaled down train models scattered around the park, allowing both children and adults to ride around their mini-tracks. These rides are priced at 100 or 200 JPY depending on the size.

In addition to the outdoor area, there is an indoor section with a shop, model railway, train simulator and some additional arcade games for children. There is also an observation area on top of the building, although quite what you are supposed to observe from there I found difficult to tell.

Food

Food in the park is almost non-existent, save for a vending machine selling French Fries and sushi(!).

Cost

The cost is extremely cheap as the entrance fee is only 100 yen for adults. The rides inside the park are very basic and therefore do not exceed 200 yen.


Rating

Overall, a fun way to spend a couple of hours, but not enough activities or variety for keep you busy for much longer than that. The area is quite scenic, and the number and range of engines on display is impressive, however, the lack of explanations as to what things are mean you end up leaving the park with more questions than answers. For example, they have a nice photo display documenting the transportion of the Shinkansen into the park. The photographs are beautiful black and white shots, and were a great find as the first thing that crossed my mind when I saw the Shinkansen was: "How on earth did they get that thing in here?". However, there were no dates on or near the photographs, leaving me frustrated.

Pros: Great experience for a young child who likes trains. Real-life engines including a Shinkansen. Inexpensive. A nice scenic park.

Cons: A little far from central Tokyo. Not many activities. Not many explanations given regarding the exhibits. No decent food on site.


Rating: 6/10 Worth a trip if you live nearby, or your child is mad about trains.

In the Army Now: A morning at the Self Defence Force Public Information Center

Summary

JGSDF Public Information Center: Tanks, helicopters, underground command post, flight simulator, tank simulator, 3D movie, battle dress and survival food.

**Has parking**West Tokyo**For Elementary School Kids**Half day Activity**Admission free**10:00-17:00**Closed Monday and every 4th Tuesday**

Rating: 7/10 - Fun activities but not enough to last a whole day


Website

JGSDF Public Information Center (Japanese Only)

Location/Access

東京都練馬区大泉学園町
Tokyo, Nerima-Ku, OizumiGakuen-cho
048-460 1711


大きな地図で見る

By Train: 1.5km (15min. on foot) from Wako-shi Sta. (和光市駅), Tobutojo line/Yuraku-cho line (東武東上線・有楽町線).

By Car: 1.5km (3min) from Wako I.C. (和光インター）, Tokyo GAIKAN Expressway. （東京外環自動車道）


Activities

Exhibitions
The place is more museum-like than anything, so most of the activities center around the various military exhibitions. Inside the building, there is a real life tank and helicopter; and you are able to climb up some stairs set up at the side of the vehicles to get a better look inside the cockpits. If one tank isn't enough, rest assured there are several other full size tanks waiting in the outside area.

Other exhibitions include SDF backpacks, jackets, guns, underground bunkers, parachutes etc. All the kind of things you would expect from a military themed museum. One note: don't expect to see anything from during or before WWII: remember the Self Defense Force was created after the end of America's post WWII occupation of Japan.

Dressing up
One nice feature was a corner allowing children to change into battle dress for the duration of their time in the center. They have sizes ranging from the smallest child to the biggest parent, so there's no need for Dad to by shy of living out his childhood "GI Joe" fantasy.

Simulators
There are a number of game console like simulators dotted around the center. You manipulate a joystick to operate either a tank or helicopter, and move around blowing things up. It's marvelously politically incorrect, as you get to actually blow up computer images of moving tanks, rather than sterile targets, but how long these games will keep the "playstation generation" entertained is a matter of debate, indeed.

There is one large sized flight simulator in the building, but as the requirements for this ride were children of 6 years or older, my young family and I had to give this one a miss.


3D Movie
There is a 3D theater running movies on a regular schedule; and the effects work quite well with the standard 3D plastic specs. However, the entire thing is Japanese only. In addition, it's quite the propaganda movie, so those sensitive to a rather one sided portrayal of Japan's military activities post WWII should maybe give this one a miss.

Food

There are no restaurants on site, only a few vending machines dishing out snacks near the outside entrance. One suggestion: There are a number of "Survival foods" available in the shop. My family and I purchased a couple of packs, and had a "mock SDF soldier's meal" for our dinner later that evening.

Cost

This is a really low cost day out: The entrance and all attractions are completely free. The goods in the shop are a little on the dear side, however, with a box of survival food and a toy tank costing our family around 3000 yen.

Rating

The activities are fun, but a little short lived. If you took a picnic, it's feasible you could stretch the day out over lunch by sitting on the benches in the outside area, surrounded by tanks. Also, older kids would soon get pretty bored, so I'd say 3-6 years would be the ideal age.

Pros: It's free, the shop is interesting, there is a lot of interactivity.

Cons: Not enough for a whole day, no restaurant on-site, a little small.


Rating: 7/10