Homeschooling

Hello all. We are looking at homeschooling our daughter but we have no idea where to start. We are a Filipino family living in Japan, and our 8 year old goes to a Japanese public school. We can�ft afford international school and we�fd like to homeschool to focus on her English.

I have talked to the board of education in regards to homeschooling and they tell me it�fs simply not possible. But I have seen online posts of parents who live in Japan enrolling their kids to online schools and pushing through the idea of homeschooling so it must be possible.

Are there any laws in regards to this?

Any input would be appreciated. Thank you.

It is possible, especially if your child has citizenship other than Japanese. Our American & Japanese dual-citizen daughter homeschooled in Japan with no problem whatsoever. You just need to follow procedure. Here's some online information:

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~ja8i-brtl/hs_stories.htm

Scroll down to the second story ("Homeschooling in Japan: Our Arrangements with the Local School Authorities").

I don't want to post my email address online, but if you tell me how to contact you, I'll gladly share more information.

if you go home with your child in future, then that might be OK.
if your daughter stay in Japan in future, it is better for her to go to public school.
children learn in school how to live peacefully with others in this crowded country. that is more important than knowledge.

I don`t know your home situation - but from my experience, speaking a language at home that is different from that of the society - is a perfect way to foster bilingualism. Therefore I question the need to home school for the sake of English. Rather just ensure that only English is spoken at home - if that is possible for your family. Of course you might support that with additional materials - books, movies, and maybe a tutor or a language school.

Thank you all for your replies.

@David, I�fm not sure I can post an email address here but I would like to hear more from your experience. I can be reached at andierthesea[AT]gmail

I saw your post about the educational by-law exempting children from the compulsory school requirement, �w�Z����@���O��(gakko kyoiku-ho nijusan-jo), as well as a special exemption form known as �A�w�Ə��� (shugaku menjo negai).
Could you please explain these laws? I can�ft seem to find an english translation for it and my Japanese is not the best.

We have other personal reasons why we want to homeschool (concerned about our safety from stalking) and they don�ft seem to listen. Moving to a new city (again) is not an option.
(This is another matter I am taking care of at the same time I�fm battling with the school board)

Anyway, I went to the kyoiku iinkai today and was told:

1. We don�ft do homeschooling in this city.
2. Your only option is to move to a different city or keep your child in the local school.
3. Your child must be in school even if she�fs a foreigner.
4. Online schools/umbrella schools don�ft count as real school.

And I left feeling defeated.... I didn�ft know what else to say.

I have received a call from my daughter�fs school and they would like a meeting with me and the principal but I haven�ft scheduled that yet. Should I talk to school first before I go back to the school board? I have an appointment at the school board next week with a translator, in the mean time I�fd like to gather as much information so I can convince them to help me. I want to do this the right way and not have my daughter go awol.

I can't believe that the Board of Education told you that it's "impossible". I hope it's just some misunderstanding. Parents do need to educate their children, but it doesn't have to be at a designated school building. That is the law, and the Board is supposed to know it.

But when consulting about something, basically you should talk to your current homeroom teacher first, and if that doesn't work you can talk to other teachers you think you can rely on at the school, move up to gakunen-shunin (chief teacher of the grade), and then on to principal, and if that doesn't work you go to the Board of Education. Either way, if you haven't talked to the school yet, it's worth talking to them with the interpreter.

1. We don�ft do homeschooling in this city.

The city won't do homeschooling. But the law says that you are free to do it on your own or to rely on a private organization.

4. Online schools/umbrella schools don�ft count as real school.

This is true. So if your child only uses online/umbrella schools, your child may not be able to get an authorized graduation certificate, therefore may not be able to attend the graduation ceremony of the public school (s)he is currently attending. But of course, the child will still be educated through online schools/umbrella schools.

My advice is to do whatever research you need to do, and talk to the school with an interpreter. I don't really think you should jump to conclusions without talking to the school at all.

Meanwhile, posters can contact each other anonymously through this website. What you should do is to register, log in, and just post something on this thread. Then anyone will be able to click your name. Then the person automatically jumps to a page where the person can then click "contact this user".

David,

I just realized that the OP, Andie Mason, had already logged in. Click her (his?) name on her (his?) last post and you can contact each other.

By the way, Ken hardly reads anything right. It's probably the language barrier plus his innocence. He's often helpful when he's in a good mood.

I saw your message. I'm rather busy with meetings this morning, so I will write to you by email later today.

By the way, you are bound to run into people who are ignorant of the law and who have their own narrow-minded agenda to promote. And in some areas, the authorities use harassment as a tactic to beat down the parents. Unfortunately, it sounds like you might live in such an area.

I'd suggest that you stay focused on the positive. You definitely can homeschool legally in Japan, and I'll do what I can to help out. There are also some Japanese organizations that offer support.

More later via email...

David,

Will look forward to your email.
Thank you so much, we appreciate it.

I just sent you an email message. Hopefully I got the address correct.

This is not related to what you are asking for, but since high cost of international school is common problem many foreigners parents face, I thought I would give this opinion

There are many Indian schools which are very reasonable (around one third the cost of international school) they follow all English taught courses, many follow courses that are designed in India with good focus on science and maths

I have heard good comments about the school, check it out to see if it will work for you

On the Indian school(s) - do you have a particular one in mind? Name or link? Thanks.

Below are ones that comes with good feedback, there are more tho

https://jp.globalindianschool.org/tokyo

http://www.tathva.ed.jp/

http://www.iisjapan.com/