Can i go a japanese highschool in 2025?

Venice,

Thanks for more feedback.

[ Your parents don't want you to go to college in Japan, but they're okay about you going to high school in Japan? Most parents have it the other way around. ]

If i remember right

Well, you should start by clarifying that with your parents. For example, most parents would find it a problem if their child stays at school forever without earning and saving from real careers. But you can avoid that problem by starting a career, earning money, and then going back to school using your own savings that you've earned without the help of your parents.

i also would prefer to already have some experience in living in Japan before going to a university there since overall i think i would have more opportunities if i was familiar with the place enough to be able to comfortably live alone in that time.

That doesn't really sound realistic. A great number of Japanese youth start living alone in a far away city for the first time in their lives when they enter university. Speaking from experience, their knowledge on everyday living is as poor as those fresh from abroad.

And you may think that you could learn Japanese language better by going to high school here in Japan, but the disadvantage of trying to keep up with classes would be bigger than the advantages of learning language.

do you think I'd have a higher chance or possibility of being able to go there if i had 2 years to study?

You never know, because less students are accepted through transfer. In any case, you should try doing old exams and see how much chance you have. There are also 通信教育 (correspondence education) that would grade your answers and estimate what your chances of being accepted are.

I am learning in my country and it seems Japan is a little bit late compared to mine when it comes to the topics in math and science and english isn't an issue either so i think the biggest problem for me qould be japanese Literature and history.

I'm aware that teens in the Philippines have the opportunity to achieve extremely high academic skills. But you need to keep in mind that all math and science terms in classes in Japan are in Japanese language. Typically, that's where a lot of students coming from overseas have problems with.

Again, if you're doing well now, the best way for you to come to Japan as a teen would be to come as an exchange student. You and your guardians would have more support and reassurance. Or if your parents are willing to finance, an international school would be good too. You would be able to take classes in English while adjusting to Japanese language and culture in your daily life.

I wish to resign from this thread from now on, because I feel I've said everything I need to say.

To be completely honest that totally slipped my mind but i think it's possible to study that alongside the language like listening to lessons about Japanese Literature and history. Or practice reading using workbooks in Japanese Literature and History. I don't think it's impossible just needs effort and motivation.

Best wishes then! Studying is never a waste of time, and even if it does not work out in the end, you will still have learned a lot :)

「i think it's possible to study that alongside the language like listening to lessons about Japanese Literature and history. Or practice reading using workbooks in Japanese Literature and History. I don't think it's impossible just needs effort and motivation.」

You're right that becoming proficient in Japanese (or any other foreign language) requires effort and motivation. You may be underestimating, however, how much time will be required, even with high levels of effort and motivation.

You mention that you "know hiragana but haven't learned katakana and kanji," This means that you are several years behind Japanese students of your same age. You mention feeling confident in math and science, but those textbooks will have lots of kanji and, for science, lots of katakana vocabulary.

You said "I still have a year before i start high school," so I'm assuming you're in either the 9th or 8th grade. Also assuming that you want to go to a regular Japanese high school (as opposed to an international school in Japan), you have a lot of catching up to do in terms of language proficiency, so I would think your first focus should be on figuring out how to improve your language skills (either through study in your home country or by attending specialized language school programs in Japan).

「I have an aunt in Japan who is willing to sponsor me but since she is busy living her own life and is not knowledgeable with how things like this works she told me that if i really want to go to school in Japan i have to make an effort myself. I also cannot ask my parents for help regarding this matter since they too have no knowledge about it」

There are several issues you will need to resolve here.

First, regarding your aunt who is willing to sponsor you, is she a Japanese national/citizen, or an immigrant working in Japan? Her sponsoring you isn't as easy as just saying "My niece/nephew wants to live with me in Japan, and I want to let her/him." Your aunt will likely need to demonstrate why it would be better for you to live with her in Japan than for you to live with your parents in the Philippines, and there are often additional/stricter checks in the case of a non-citizen who wants to sponsor a relative.

Regarding your aunt being "busy living her own life" and "not knowledgeable with how things like this work," and not being able to ask your parents for help "since they too have no knowledge about it," both of those situations are going to need to change at some point if your goal is to attend high school in Japan. For starters, if your aunt is too busy living her own life to help you, it raises the question of how she's going to be responsible for your life while you're in Japan. Being your guardian for visa purposes doesn't mean she just signs a piece of paper and says "Sure, I give my niece/nephew permission to live in Japan." She will be legally responsible for your wellbeing while you're in the country, and as a minor you will be required to live with her (unless you're staying in a boarding school dormitory), and unless she can demonstrate that she'll be able/willing to provide such support in your daily life, the immigration probably won't see her as a suitable guardian for you.

In addition, no matter how much research you do on you own, at some point both your aunt and your parents will need to be involved in the process. As a minor, you are unable to enter into legally binding agreements (visa applications, school application, etc.) on your own. These are things your parents and aunt will absolutely have to be involved in, in terms of document preparation, interviews, etc. You will have to bring them into the process sooner or later, and doing so as soon as possible will probably be for the best, regardless of whether or not you are ultimately able to attend high school in Japan.

OP, thank you for clarifying your status. Some people mentioned to you about international schools as a more possible option, so I googled about those located in Saitama.
There are several international schools in Saitama, but only one of them offers a curriculum for senior high school students.

https://columbia-ca.co.jp/en/

And here is the "Admissions Guideline for Senior High School Programs" of that school. It has information about its admission and tuition fee as well.

https://columbia-ca.co.jp/downloads/2024-2025/2024-2025_Application_Gu...

Given the information, it costs roughly 6,700,000 yen for 3 year. I'm about to faint at this point , but additionally the school also states that fees explained above will not cover all costs students need for school life. For example, the cost of a school trip is 500,000 yen and you will need to purchase anything necessary for your school life apart. Taking these into account, the tuition fee that you (not yourself actually, but your parents or your aunt) would have to pay is likely to be around 8 million yen (equivalent to more than 3 million Philippine pesos) or more for the 3-year curriculum.
I can't assume how much your parents are saving for your dream and how much your aunt makes in Japan. But, if I were your relative I would scream, "No! Please don't talk to me anymore about that!" and would shut you down, even if I live and work in Japan.

Why keep repeating/ rinse the same thing over and over.

To OP, the answer is a simple No. No high-school for you. University maybe.

Your aunt won't/cannot sponsor your visa since she is NOT your parent or grandparent. Period.

Just finish your high school in Philippine, get a good grade, and apply for MEXT scholarship for University, since you say your parent don't want to sponsor you for University study in Japan.

OR
exchange program to temporary satisfy your desire ..

https://www.ph.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_en/11_000001_00308.html
https://jaif.asean.org/
https://www.afs.ph/scholarships/
https://www.ph.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_en/11_000001_00243.html

I would also like to add more information. My aunt is completely fine with sponsoring me and i thought about it a lot or more like for a few minutes and came to decide that I'm totally fine with enrolling in an international highschool. And my Aunt already said that. She's willing to sponsor me since her daughter (my cousin) already graduated and has a job. And i completely understand why most of you thought my Aunt didn't really care cuz i worded it out like that but my Aunt said long ago that she'll take care of the things that needs to be done by law or smth and i should focus on inquiring in schools. And my Aunt is Filipino but she gained citizenship i think since she's been living in Japan for more than 30 years now. And her husband is Japanese and is also willing to sponsor me and wants me to be able to go to Japan as well.

「I'm totally fine with enrolling in an international highschool...my Aunt said long ago that she'll take care of the things that needs to be done by law or smth and i should focus on inquiring in schools」

In that case, and assuming that being "totally fine with enrolling in an international highschool" includes being fine with the tuition payments, your situation sounds pretty simple. As a minor, you won't be able to rent your own apartment/live on your own, so your options are to either attend an international high school within commuting distance from your aunt's home, or to attend an international high school with a dormitory.

International high schools aren't super rare in Japan, but they're not that common either. International high schools with a dormitory are rarer still. Some online searches for international schools near your aunt's home or with a dormitory will probably result in a relatively small list of candidate schools for you to consider and pick from. After you've decided which one you'd like to attend, contact their admissions department, and they can most likely get you started on the application process and also give you information on what steps your aunt will need to take with the immigration department.

There are two things you'll probably want to keep in mind before committing to going to an international high school in Japan.

1. As Stip alluded to, tuition at international high schools in Japan tends to be very expensive. There are two major reasons for this. First, high school itself is not part of required education in Japan, so tuition is regularly charged, even at non-international high schools. Second, international high schools are primarily aimed at providing educational services for the children of high-ranking businesspeople/government workers, who generally have high incomes and are willing to pay expensive tuition.

2.
The student experience at an international high school may or may not match your expectations of what it's like to be a high school student in Japan. As I said, international high schools tend to target high-level businesspeople/government workers, so the students tend to be either Japanese children who are likely to be living overseas in the near future (either because their family is moving overseas because of their parents' work or because they're planning to attend high-level overseas universities after they graduate) or non-Japanese children who will be living in Japan for a limited time (as a result of moving to the country for their parents' work) and want to be able to smoothly transition back to a non-Japanese school system after they leave Japan.

In other words, an international high school in Japan may not necessarily represent a typical Japanese high school experience. That doesn't mean that international high school in Japan is a bad experience, but if your primary reason for wanting to specifically attend high school in Japan (as opposed to university or language school) is because your dream is to live an archetypal Japanese high school student life, you might not find it at an international school, where many of your classmates may also not be from Japan, and even those who are may have spent many of their formative years bouncing back and forth between other countries because of their parents' work.

Again, this is not meant to demean international high schools, which in many ways offer an excellent learning experience. I'm simply suggesting that you might want to do some more thinking and pinpoint just what it is you're hoping for while studying in Japan, and if part of your dream is that "My school feels so JAPANESE!", an international school might not provide that.

Speaking personally, I attended the international division within a Japanese university, a setup which allowed me to both Japanese-language classes and classes in other subjects taught in English, while still giving me opportunities to meet and interact with regular Japanese students in the non-international division on campus, in club activities, and in certain mixed enrollment classes. This sort of hybrid format is often an effective path for foreign students who want to immerse themselves in Japanese culture but aren't linguistically ready to simply enroll in standard for-Japanese-students classes, but it's not a format that's found at the high school level, which is one more reason you might enjoy attending college more than high school in Japan, though you said that your parents are opposed to you going abroad for college.

in general, foreigners(residing in Japan) can't bring their parents and their brothers and sisters in Japan. thus, it is difficult or impossible for your aunt to bring you to Japan. of course, she can be a sponsor for temporal visiting visa. but, the situation (you want to go to school) is completely different from visiting.

please ask what you can and what you can't, at immigration office or a professional.
also, people here use the word, guardian, so easily. but, they don't know the legal meaning of this word, probably. I think she(your aunt) can't become your guardian legally.

@Stip,
Actually, 6,700,000 yen for 3 years would be considered a bargain for private schools where I live. That is about 45,676 USD according to google, which works out to only about $15k a year. I know some private schools (for local residents) near my place charge upwards of $30k per year.
One must understand why public schooling is "free" is because it is paid for by taxpayers. Taxpayers are obviously under no obligation to pay for non-resident children. A quick google for private high school costs in USA is $16,265 a year. I presume that is for residents. Now we are talking about an international student where the school has zero government subsidy for them, so in my opinion $15k a year sounds very reasonable.

As to OP's or rather OP's parents' financial circumstances and how much they are willing to pay to make this dream a reality, that is a question only they can answer. We do not know if OP may already be attending a $20k a year private school in their home country.

Many people are prepared to spend big on their child's education because they view it as an investment, as well as a one in a lifetime opportunity to network and make lifelong connections with the "right" people (the hope of making friends with a future fortune 500 company executives, as a rather far fetched but not too extreme example). If they believe sending their child to high school in Japan, for a chance at subsequently going to university in Japan, graduating in Japan and finding a high paying job, whether in Japan or back home with a prestigious degree, that is up to them. Unless they are rich and very generous, I doubt anyone would want to pay that much just for "fun" without a clear long term plan.

I have a feeling cost is not OP's main concern, to be asking such questions I assume they already know Japan is an expensive place, and maybe they are wealthy. I assume they are more concerned about the legal aspect of it.
As someone else pointed out, to appoint the aunt as a guardian may not be a straightforward process since OP is living with their parents.

I am wondering would it possible for OP to attend a boarding school or a school with a homestay program, with the aunt as the guarantor? In Australia, there are people from China who have paid a lot of money for their child to attend high school with no relatives in the country. They stay with a host family who acts as their legal guarantor. I wonder if something similar can be done in Japan. That it would cost a lot of money can of course be assumed.

To the OP of this thread:

We've seen LOTS of posts on this forum about teenagers dreaming of doing high-school in Japan and the answer is usually the same. It's usually not possible due to the limitations of the law. When you're underage, you simply don't have the same privileges as being an adult and still have many restrictions.

I get it that you want to stay with your Aunt and that they're on board with it, but there are still SO MANY other requirements that you may be overlooking. As others mentioned, you have to think about how much money you'll need to stay there and using for school, language proficiency as high-school level will definitely require lots of kanji, on top of hiragana and katakana, and the list goes on.

I don't know the reason as to why you want to do high school in Japan so badly. Is it based off of anime you've watched or manga? Japan is not some kind of utopia that is like anime, lol. It's VERY stressful in the school/work life and Japan is all about getting good marks, taking tests and other forms of education to "show how good you are on paper."

I'm not trying to shoot down your dream, though you have to also look at reality too. If would be way easier to just apply to college when you're considered an adult and that way you also have way more freedom as an adult. As mentioned, there are LOTS of teenagers who post on here asking the same question and it's not just a simple "oh I'm going to get sponsored and go to school there, no problem. I have money and I know Japanese." There are just MANY factors in place. I wish you good luck, but please consider waiting until you're old enough to make your own decisions. When we're young, we don't have enough life experience to understand how the world works.

Thank you for the people who would actually this far into this thread to be wble to read this. I would like to add or change a few things abiut my questions here. (Sorry if i nay not be making much sense in the way i say things It's night time and I'm rather sleepy)

1. I have an aunt in japan who is willing to be my Gaurdian in Japan she is not japanese but is a citizen of japan nd her husband who is Japanese also wants me to be able to go to japan and my aunt already said that she'll do everything she has to do to be able to become my gaurdian.

2. I am not looking to be able to go to a Japanese Highschool anymore since thanks to the kind people of this thread i realized that i was simply not being realistic at all. And i may be still in my own delusion when i ask if i can go to an international school instead. But the question here is: can i or can i not? And what are the factors that may make it possible and make it not possible?

3. And to add i plan to attend a japanese language school here in my home country and will also attend one Japan if i by chance actually get there.

And please to the people who might reply to this please to add the factors that make it possible and what makes it not possible.

I apologise if i sound demanding. And please if you see any typos please ignore it I'm to tired to check 🥰 And again Thank You Very much!!

If you aunt is now willing to do everything in her power to help. Then her and her husband can easily research all you needed in Japanese language, and relay it back to you.

Personally, once 18, I would just go to a language school in Japan, get the appropriate COE/visa needed and live with your aunt. Once you Japanese language shills are high enough, go get a job at a combini.

@Venice

After participating in this thread, I surveyed the visa categories and regulations in Japan, and I found some disappointing information for you. Your aunt is likely to be unable to sponsor a visa for you to "attend high school," even if it is an international school and she eagers to do. What ken wrote before (below) is correct.

in general, foreigners(residing in Japan) can't bring their parents and their brothers and sisters in Japan. thus, it is difficult or impossible for your aunt to bring you to Japan. of course, she can be a sponsor for temporal visiting visa. but, the situation (you want to go to school) is completely different from visiting.

As ken mentioned, we have to consider that there are different visa categories for inviting foreigners to Japan. By inquiring with an immigration lawyer or someone more knowledgeable in immigration law, you might get more hopeful alternatives, but the basic and principal rules seem to be as follows:

#1.
Foreigners under a certain visa (and including nationalized foreigners perhaps) can be eligible, if they applications are admitted, to invite their foreign family to Japan for a LONG period and to become a visa sponsor. However, in this category, the law allows them to invite ONLY their "spouse and children," not other kinds of relatives such as your case: aunt and nephew/niece.

#2.
If they want to invite other relatives, such as parents, brothers/sisters, and nephews/nieces (your case!), cousins and so on, they can apply for it as well. However, in those cases, another visa category is considered and the visa granted for them is only up to a maximum of 90 days and is a single-entry (non-renewable) visa. No matter how you wish to stay longer, you must leave Japan within 90 days.

This implies that it seems legally quite impossible for you to join any school in Japan in the way of your plan.
Sorry, I had been confusing those #1 and #2 on the beginning. I have once told you something like "Your aunt has the possibility to be your legal guardian," but it was not true for your dream of living in Japan for years with your aunt (and her spouse).