Does Japan have private foreign schools?

Me and my family live in Taiwan, my 6 year old daughter, attends what is known here as a 'American' school, she is still in kindergarten. The 'American' school is not an international school, the students are largely Taiwanese, but the teaching is mostly done in english. Taiwan also has bilingual schools, my wife works at one, where the teaching is in both English and Chinese.
We would like to move to Japan and are looking for jobs, as I have a degree in Japanese. My question is does Japan have private foreign or bilingual schools and if so how common are they?

Yes there are several private foreign schools (there are even some for north koreans or brazilians). Western school are often quite expensive, like very expensive. Not only in Tokyo but also in other big cities like Osaka, Yokohama...

I have a degree in Japanese
Well, not sure that having a degree in Japanese is impressive to Japanese people and Japanese recruiters. It's like having a degree in English and wanting to move to UK or to US. Unless you have something valuable like programming for example, you will have a hard time convincing them that being able to speak Japanese in Japan is an advantage...

Japan has a reasonable number of international schools. Some of the schools have mainly Japanese students, some have only international students. Note that apart from the Indian schools, they can be quite expensive. However, they may be similar in cost to International Schools in Taiwan.

I am an international teacher who has worked in both Taiwan and Japan so know the international market quite well in both countries. Note that Japan has a better range of quality 'true' international schools. I'm aware that there are only three true international schools in Taiwan: Taipei American School, Taipei European School and Kaohsiung American. I can think of at least 10 schools like this in Tokyo alone. The main cities in Japan which have a reasonable international school I would send a student to includes: Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, Nagoya, Yokohama and Fukuoka. I've heard mixed things about Kyoto (but it's close enough to Osaka or Kobe) and Hiroshima.

Note that I won't say bad things about individual schools in a public forum but will via Private Message if you need info at a later date.

Note that there are also Chinese speaking schools if you are Taiwanese as well....

Hi, Mfedley.
To clarify, I am not Taiwanese I am British as is my wife we teach in Taiwan. It seems in Taiwan the term 'international' school doesn't mean perhaps what it means in Japan? I know many non licensed teachers who work at Taiwanese 'international' schools, and students here don't have to hold foreign (international) passports to go to them. This is what I meant by 'private foreign schools' Does this also happen in Japan? Or am I mistaken with what the term 'international school' entails?

Note: I am not disapproving of the schools or trying to slander them. I understand why these schools are popular. For instance, my daughter interacts daily not only with native Taiwanese but also with American, Australian, Japanese, Korean and Malaysian children.

yes. the situation is exactly same to Taiwan. they are called as "international school".
there is no public foreign school in Japan, because those are not schools officially. (out of education system of Japan.)

There are private foreign language schools in Japan (English/Chinese/French/Korean/etc.), I attended one. They teach mostly in a foreign language, but also teach Japanese language. The curriculum must meet Japanese government standards in order to be sanctioned by the government. In Tokyo, for Chinese school as an example, there is 東京中華学校. There is one in Yokohama 横浜 also.

For American schools, there are Christian Academy Japan, American School in Japan, etc.

Japan is probably in the top 5 most wanted to live in countries for teaching positions, which means that competition for teaching positions in Japan is fierce for all but the most rural or unknown school. As such, it's basically impossible to get a job at an international school in Japan without a proper teaching certification and a strong resume.

There are some minor international schools which might employ a person without certification, but this would be rare. In general, if a school is a member of CIS (Council of International Schools) or WASC then they will not employ (or are at least not allowed to) people without certification.

That being said - adding the word 'international' does not mean that much more internationally. In asia, more local students attend international schools than international students. I currently live in Singapore and my school has a bit over 3000 students. I'm guessing that 100 or so are from Singapore. When I worked in Taiwan, I think 10% of the student population was international and in Japan it was roughly 40% Japanese (I worked at what was considered one of the top two schools in Japan).

The comments made by the other two people are also correct