Japan's education and healtcare

Child Care

Many expatriates with kids look for housing that is relatively close to the nearest school, kindergarten, or nursery. While there are lots of day care options and schools in Japan, the language barrier may be a problem.

Japanese parents with pre-school kids can have their children looked after by a baby-sitting agency. A local child care center (hoikuen) or a nanny service taking care of infants and toddlers at home (affectionately called hoiku mama) is another valid option.

However, public child care facilities tend to be Japanese-only. Therefore, expat parents often fall back on private day care services, bilingual nannies recommended by other expats, and the many independent kindergartens and pre-schools in the Tokyo-Yokohama region. The latter have several language options, especially for English-speaking children.

Education

The language barrier is also the main reason why most expat children do not attend a Japanese school. Legally speaking, non-Japanese students have the right to receive extra Japanese lessons at any public school in Japan.

Since the lack of Japanese skills may still lead to difficulties and isolation, though, most expats prefer sending their kids to a private international school. These also have the distinct advantage that they may include pre-schools, day care services or after-school facilities for younger kids under the same roof. Unfortunately, they are often rather expensive.


International Schools

In the Greater Tokyo Area, there are international schools catering to the US American, British, Canadian, Chinese, French, German, Indian, and Korean communities. Some of them also offer the International Baccalaureate. Please refer to our article on living in Tokyo for more information.

The international schools in the Kansai Region (Kyoto – Kobe – Ôsaka) are mostly English-language institutions. In the Nagoya-Aichi area, there are also some international schools with English as their main language of instruction.

Public Healthcare

The quality standards of medical care in Japan are very high. Moreover, the country has a public healthcare plan for all Japanese nationals, as well as foreigners staying in Japan for more than a year. They can enroll in the National Health Insurance System, or in a healthcare association plan via their employer. Their insurance contributions are deducted directly from their salary, or they must remember to pay the NHI tax on a regular basis.

The self-employed and the unemployed have to enroll in the National Health Insurance plan at the local government office. Their NHI tax varies depending on income (or lack thereof).