MyKyoten

High School Tuition Support in Japan: Who Qualifies | MyKyoten

Japan's high school tuition subsidy isn't automatic. Here's which visa categories qualify, which schools are covered, and what still costs extra.

Last verified: 2026. This guide is based on Immigration Bureau regulations, Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare guidelines, and standard Japanese administrative practice. It is informational only and does not constitute legal advice. Consult a licensed immigration attorney or official government sources for case-specific guidance.

Most foreign families in Japan quietly pay high school tuition they were never told they could waive. The application deadline passes every April without a single reminder sent to households that did not know they were eligible. This guide is the one that should have been in your hands before enrollment.

Who Actually Qualifies -- and Where the Rules Get Complicated

Japan's high school tuition support program -- formally called the 高等学校等就学支援金 (Koto Gakko Nado Shugaku Shien-kin) -- is not means-tested in the way most people assume. It does not work like a scholarship you apply and compete for. It is closer to a legal entitlement that gets canceled if you miss the paperwork.

The student must be enrolled in a qualifying school in Japan. That is the first gate. The student's own residency status matters more than the parent's. A child who holds a Permanent Resident visa, a Spouse of Japanese National visa, or who is registered in the family register (koseki) qualifies on residency grounds. A child on a Dependent visa attached to a parent's working visa also qualifies, provided the parent holds a qualifying status.

Visa categories that qualify include: Permanent Resident, Long-Term Resident, Spouse or Child of Japanese National, Spouse or Child of Permanent Resident, Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services, Skilled Labor, Designated Activities (certain categories), and most standard employment-based visas with recognized status.

Visa categories that are excluded: Short-Term Stay, Tourist, and undocumented or overstay status. This is the WHY that matters: the program is funded by Japanese resident taxpayers and designed for households with genuine, long-term roots in the country. Temporary entrants are excluded because they are presumed not to be participating in the local tax base.

The edge case that catches families off guard: a parent on a working visa whose income falls under the ceiling, but whose child entered Japan on a Dependent visa that was issued under a different qualifying parent. If the primary visa holder changes jobs and the dependent child's status has not been formally updated, the school may reject the application. Understanding how dependent visa linkages work can prevent exactly this problem.

The income ceiling for 2025 is based on resident tax assessed on the prior year's income. The standard ceiling used by MEXT is an annual income of approximately 9.1 million yen (the threshold at which resident tax on income portion reaches a certain level, calculated per the official formula). Below this ceiling, the base subsidy applies. There is no sliding scale for most households -- you either qualify fully or you do not qualify at all.

→ Use the Document Decoder to translate and understand your Japanese administrative documents.

Which Schools Are Covered -- and Why the Distinction Matters More Than Families Realize

Public high schools are the straightforward case. If your child attends a public prefectural or municipal high school, the subsidy covers the full official tuition amount. For public schools, the 2025 subsidy amount is approximately 118,800 yen per year. This matches the standard public tuition charge almost exactly, which is why families are sometimes told tuition is "free" -- it effectively is, for public school students who qualify.

Private high schools are more complicated. The base subsidy for private school students is also approximately 118,800 yen per year. However, private schools charge significantly more -- typically between 300,000 and 600,000 yen annually in tuition alone. The national government provides an additional top-up subsidy for lower-income households at private schools, raising the maximum national subsidy to approximately 396,000 yen per year for families below a lower income threshold (roughly 590,000 yen in resident tax on income, corresponding to annual income around 5.9 million yen depending on household structure).

Warning Box: The top-up subsidy for private schools is not automatic. It requires a separate income document submission. Many foreign families receive only the base subsidy because nobody told them to submit the additional form. If your household income is below roughly 5.9 million yen and your child attends a private school, ask the school's administrative office explicitly whether you have applied for the加算額 (kasan-gaku).

Designated vs. non-designated private schools: Only private schools that have formally applied to and been approved by the prefecture are eligible to receive subsidy funds on behalf of students. This is called 都道府県知事の認定 (prefectural governor designation). Nearly all mainstream Japanese-curriculum private high schools are designated. The risk for foreign families appears primarily with non-mainstream institutions.

International Schools and Foreign-Curriculum Schools: The Honest Answer

This is where the system stops pretending to be simple.

Most international schools in Japan -- schools teaching primarily in English, Korean, Chinese, or another foreign language, following a foreign curriculum -- are not designated under the national program. MEXT has historically limited designation to schools following the Japanese curriculum or an approved equivalent.

Some foreign-curriculum schools have pursued and received prefectural designation. Brazilian schools in areas with large Nikkei-Brazilian communities (notably in Aichi, Shizuoka, and Sao Paulo prefectures' partner programs) have made progress, as have some Korean ethnic schools. The status of any individual school should be confirmed directly with the school's administrative office and the relevant prefectural board of education -- not assumed.

If your child's school is not on the approved list: The national subsidy does not apply. However, some prefectures operate their own parallel support programs for students at non-designated schools. These programs vary significantly. Based on reports from foreign residents, Aichi and Kanagawa prefectures have had active parallel programs; other prefectures have not. Contact your prefectural board of education (教育委員会) directly and ask whether a 外国人学校補助制度 exists in your prefecture.

How the Application Actually Works: The Steps Nobody Explains

Step-by-Step Checklist Step 1 -- Confirm eligibility at enrollment. When your child is accepted to a high school, inform the school office that you are a foreign national household and ask about the 就学支援金 application. Do this at enrollment, not later. Step 2 -- School submits the primary application. For most students, the school handles the submission to the prefecture. Your job is to provide documents the school requests. Step 3 -- Provide income verification. Japanese households provide their 住民税課税証明書 (resident tax assessment certificate) from city hall. Foreign households who have not yet had resident tax assessed -- typically new arrivals in their first year -- must provide alternative documentation. This typically means a foreign income certificate translated into Japanese, or an employer letter confirming current annual income with a stamp. Ask your school which format they require; there is no single national standard for this alternative. Step 4 -- Submit by the April deadline. Applications must be submitted at the start of the academic year in April. There is a secondary window around July for households that missed April, but the safest practice is April submission. Missing both windows means losing the subsidy for that academic year. It is not retroactively applied. Step 5 -- Annual renewal. The subsidy is not permanent. It must be renewed each academic year. The income used for assessment shifts each year to the prior year's resident tax data.

A concrete example: A family arrived in Japan in March 2024 and their child enrolled in a private high school in April 2024. At April 2024 enrollment, they had no resident tax assessment because they had only just registered at city hall. The school needed proof of income. The father, a Brazilian IT engineer on an Engineer visa, provided a certificate of employment from his Japanese employer confirming his annual salary of 5.2 million yen. The school accepted this and submitted the application. The family received the base subsidy of 118,800 yen that first year. In April 2025, they submitted the resident tax certificate showing 5.2 million yen income from 2024, which fell below the threshold, and they were assessed for the additional private school top-up subsidy as well. The difference was significant -- total subsidy rose to approximately 396,000 yen in year two.

If you need help reading the resident tax notice you receive from your city, the Resident Tax Notice Decoder can walk you through what each figure on that document actually means before you submit it anywhere.

What "Free" Actually Means -- and What You Still Pay

Nothing in this program covers everything. Let that be clear before families plan a budget.

For public school students who qualify for the full subsidy, tuition itself is effectively zeroed out. But public high schools in Japan still charge:

For private school students receiving the maximum subsidy of 396,000 yen, a school charging 480,000 yen in tuition still leaves 84,000 yen per year in tuition gap, plus all the supplementary fees above.

Prefectural top-up programs exist in many prefectures and operate separately from the national program. These are administered by the prefectural board of education and, in some cases, individual municipalities. Tokyo's tuition-free initiative, for example, extended support to private school students regardless of income from 2024. Osaka has had a similar program. These programs do not require a separate national application -- they are layered on top. But foreign families must confirm eligibility separately because some programs exclude non-permanent residents.

Your next step: Contact your child's school administrative office before the next April enrollment window, ask specifically for the 就学支援金 application packet, and confirm whether you need to submit a resident tax certificate or an alternative income document as a foreign national household.

My child has a Dependent visa. Does that automatically exclude them from the subsidy?

No. A Dependent visa does not exclude a child from eligibility. What matters is whether the primary visa holder in the household holds a qualifying status. If your working visa is a recognized category -- Engineer, Skilled Labor, Permanent Resident, and others -- your dependent child qualifies. Confirm your specific visa category with the school office.

We missed the April deadline. Can we still apply?

There is typically a secondary application window around July for students who missed April. However, the subsidy is generally not backdated to April if you apply in July -- it applies from the approval date forward. Missing both the April and July windows usually means forfeiting the subsidy for that entire academic year.

The school told us international school students do not qualify. Is that final?

For the national program, it usually is final if the school is not designated. But ask your prefectural board of education whether a separate prefectural program exists for non-designated schools. Some prefectures have parallel support systems that the school itself may not know about or mention.

If you received a resident tax notice and are not sure which figures on it represent your assessable income for this application, the Resident Tax Notice Decoder identifies each line on the document in plain English and tells you exactly which numbers the school and prefecture will use to assess your subsidy eligibility.