Elementary school with tourist visa

We are hoping to travel to Japan for three months in 2025 (late January to late April) and would like to enrol our children in a local elementary school while we are there. We will be travelling on a 3 month tourist visa. They will be aged 8 (turning 9) and 11. Is it possible to enrol for this length of time? We are Australian and they attend a bilingual school in Australia learning Japanese.
Thanks!

A public school is out of the question. Taxpayers wouldn't be happy to pay to babysit your kids for 3 months. The teachers are overworked and underpaid as it is.

If you have the money, maybe a private school will do it. Or just get them a tutor.

Pretty sure you need a resident card to enrol children in schools. You don't get one of those being a temp visitor.

Dear Anonymous,

I wonder if you perhaps have some kind of Japanese heritage or relatives here in Japan. Maybe there are ways specifically unique to your situation. You should talk directly to the school you have in mind if not the Board of Education of that district. I wouldn't be surprised if some schools accept you as a one-day visitor. It would help language/culture education for the school as well.

Otherwise, I'm not sure if it's worth while for children that old to join a class at the end of the school year, even (or especially) considering that most of it would be spring vacation. The bond among classmates would be already there and those classmates would be focusing on tests and school events that typically are held in March. And classes for children that old are highly academic. I wouldn't want children being thrown into that environment without much preparation only to end up disliking it.

Meanwhile, there are also off-school private classes designed for returnees as well as community non-profit language classes that you may want to consider. Additionally, if you go to residential areas, kids would be playing at parks and public facilities, and I'm sure many would be happy to casually play with your children, which would be a great experience that you can't have in touristic areas. And during school vacation, there would be local events aimed to entertain and educate school-age children.

I'm not saying that it's impossible for your children to experience a real Japanese school under a tourist visa. I'm just saying that I can't give you a yes-or-no answer.

Btw, even children (6-15) of illegal residents have the right to enroll in public schools in Japan, and they do which is great. Whether the school, municipal and country take good care of those kids is a totally different question.

Public schools: you�fd need to be residents of Japan to have your kids enrolled in a local public elementary school.
Private schools: you might want to contact private schools in the area(s) you intend to visit to see if they make any special cases for visitors. But some private schools are difficult to get into - meaning, local kids need to sit for tests/interviews to be admitted, so I wonder even temporary admission is that easy.

Also�c i wonder what your aim is. If your intention is to give your children an opportunity to learn Japanese more, be sure you discuss that upfront with the school, because if a school allows your children to stay, their aim might be to give their current kids to interact with your kids in the English language. And bilingual classes �gcan�h be confusing to kids unless they are given proper guidance - like English only during one class, Japanese language only in the 2nd class of the day, etc.

Indeed, late January to late April isn�ft the best of timing - it is toward the second half of the 3rd semester (early January to early March) then the beginning of a new school year (from early April), with term-end tests, getting ready to proceed to the next grade, term-end ceremony, then the spring break (from late March to early April).

A few schools may have a system to accept children for a quite short term. However, I've heard that this system is primarily for Japanese (returnee) kids with Japanese citizenship whose parents bring them to Japan temporarily.

I think that no Japanese schools will officially accept foreign children visiting Japan on a short-term visitor status such as a tourist visa. I know many foreigners who send/have sent their children to Japanese schools, and ALL of them are/were long-term residents, such as teachers, workers, or graduate school students. You may be able to inquire at some schools, but don't expect positive responses.

Schools are not childcare facilities for free where foreign tourists can simply leave their children to join while the parents enjoy a kids-free itinerary. Or are you planning to stay in the same place for the whole trip (3 months on your visa) without visiting any other places? But even if your plan is so, I don't think it would work well due to the reasons mentioned above.

Thanks everyone for your responses. We have family in Japan so were hoping to base ourselves near them and give the kids the opportunity of a cultural exchange and opportunity to improve their Japanese. We will ask our family to enquire at their school. 3 months is the longest we can get away from our jobs but we might be able to organise some kind of working visa.

This question has been asked a few times in the past - but my guess is you wish to get your kids learning in an actual Japanese school to improve their language school.

It may be possible - but getting into contact with family who can contact local schools directly would be my best bet.

Another thing to do is to speak to your school PTA to see if the same has been done by other families since your kids are attending a Japanese bilingual school in Australia.

For private schools - I do think that most international schools will not want short term students. Plus - it will be expensive.

I'm very sorry but I find your question either completely naive or completely audacious and arrogant.
Why on earth should the strict and already stretched Japanese schooling system randomly accept three holidaying foreign tourist's children (non tax paying) into their schools - whilst on holiday for a few months to what surmounts to basically child minding?

Note: My daughter recently went to Japan on an official high school student exchange program for 12 months - this was formally organized and recognized by the Japanese schooling system. It cost a lot of money to do this and we don't regret it. She travelled on a student VISA not a tourist VISA.

International teacher here.

My guess is that the parent wants to improve their childs Japanese proficiency, not just have a holiday and dump the kid in school for 3 months.

I often see this for other countries - where a student will go to (<<insert home country name>>) for a few months and then come back. Sometimes these students are residents of that said country - sometimes they are just native speakers. It's actually much more common than most people think.

Each country is different in what is allowed, but if you attend a bilingual school in Australia that speaks Japanese then I'm sure there are other parents who have done the same thing as you. As such - speaking to the Parents Association for first hand experience is probably going to be much more fruitful than a random Japanese forum with people from disparate backgrounds.

Very possible, at least in Hiroshima.

At my kids elementary school a couple of times kids from the U.S. have attended their school. The kids do have some Japanese family in Hiroshima but are residents of the U.S. only attend for about a month.

I would contact the elementary school directly that is near your Japanese relatives.

the above post indicates is probably, exchange programs (as mentioned earlier) or children themselves have Japanese nationality.
Hiroshima is a region where many Japanese have migrated to US and other countries historically.