What to know before choosing an international school in Japan
Three questions that matter more than a glossy website — and how to answer each one for yourself.
Japan has one of the most layered international school markets in Asia — schools that look nearly identical from the outside can differ enormously in what they teach, how they teach it, and how rigorously their claims have actually been checked. For a family relocating to Tokyo, Kobe, or Osaka on a tight visa or work timeline, that’s a lot to untangle from a handful of glossy websites.
This guide splits the decision into three questions, because they really are separate: a school’s curriculum, its teaching style, and its accreditation status can each vary independently of the other two, and marketing copy tends to blur all three into one impression of “quality.” Work through them in order below, or jump straight to whichever is least resolved for your family.
What’s actually being taught and tested
Most international schools in Japan run one of three curriculum families: the International Baccalaureate (IB), Cambridge’s IGCSE / A Level pathway, or an American-style curriculum built around Advanced Placement and a US-pattern diploma. These aren’t different flavors of the same thing — they assess students differently and are recognized differently by universities. Schools like Canadian Academy in Kobe run the full IB continuum from PYP through the Diploma Programme, which is a meaningfully bigger commitment than a school that only picks up the IB in the final two years.
Read the full breakdown of curriculum types →How the classroom actually runs
This is the part most parents don’t think to ask about, and it affects daily life more than the curriculum name does. A curriculum tells you what’s assessed at the end; it says almost nothing about whether a school teaches through inquiry-based projects, Montessori-style self-directed work, or traditional lecture-and-test instruction. Two schools can offer the identical Cambridge IGCSE and feel like completely different learning environments in practice.
See how to tell the difference →Whether the claims are actually true
Any school can put “IB World School” or “WASC accredited” on its homepage. Whether that’s currently accurate — and whether it covers the specific programme your child would actually be enrolled in — is something you can check independently in a few minutes, without relying on the school’s own marketing.
Learn how to verify accreditation →How these fit together
Solid lines: this guide → each topic. Dashed line: the three topics reference each other throughout.
Putting it together: Canadian Academy, Kobe
Canadian Academy in Kobe is a useful case study because all three questions land on it at once: it runs the full IB continuum (PYP, MYP, and DP), its PYP years are built around the IB’s mandated inquiry framework rather than a style the school chose on its own, and — checkable independently rather than taken on the school’s word — it holds current authorization and accreditation from the IB, CIS, and WASC.
It’s one reference point among many — each cluster page below names several other real schools too — for what “curriculum,” “pedagogy,” and “accreditation” look like once you’ve checked all three independently instead of taking a prospectus at face value.
View Canadian Academy’s full profile →