Cost of public elementary school for child

Approximately how much should one expect to spend (save up for) to have a child attend public elementary school per year?

Almost none. They charge you for lunches but it can be very cheap if your income is below certain level.

In principle, elementary school may cost next to nothing but you should still plan for about 300,000 to 500,000 yen in yearly education-related expenses per child.

This will vary greatly depending on what activities the child takes on, whether or not they go to a juku (cram school), etc.

For lunch and random expenses you should expect 150,000 yearly.

Then there's soccer, volleyball, or other club sports that you'll spend another 100,000 yen/year (per sport) on equipment, transportation, overnight trips, monthly fees, etc.

Then there's additional studying. This differs for everyone. Abacus, calligraphy, cram schools (juku), monthly correspondence learning (Challenge Series), etc.

Each one costs 70,000 to 150,000 yen yearly.

SO if you figure:
School lunch 60,000
School expenses 50,000
Sport 1 (soccer) 150,000
Sport 2 (swimming)100,000
Lesson 1 (abacus) 90,000

That's 450,000 yen a year per child. This will go up if you use a cram school and even more if your kid plays baseball.
You may think you kid won't need the extra schooling but it's almost unavoidable, if only because of peer pressure.

Every family is different but most every elementary school kid I know of has an activity schedule similar to the one above.

Kyototrans is right, and it also depends on the child's age. When the child is younger, there are less school activities to spend on, but you need to buy a lot of new things when starting school. As the child gets older you not only have to pay for overnight events but you also need to start preparying for junior high school which is also compulsory.

Thank you for the information!

Forgive my ignorance, but how does this amount compare if a child were going to school in (the US or England or Canada, for instance)? Assuming the child will need the same supplies and attend the same sports/other curricular activites. But they probably wouldn't go to something like juku, so I'm assuming money would be saved in this area. Is it a lot more expensive or just a bit more, or comparable?

I'm sure you can use Google to easily find information on the cost of education so that you can make an informed comparison.