The school year starts in April and ends in March of the following year. Students have a vacation of approximately one month in summer and winter.
| 3 years old | 6 | 12 | 15 | 18 | 20 | 22 | |||||||||||||
| Kinder garten |
Elementary school | Junior high school |
High school |
University | |||||||||||||||
| Junior college | |||||||||||||||||||
Children who have reached six years of age attend elementary school from the following April. The six years of education in elementary school and the three years in junior high school are compulsory, and there are no entrance examinations for municipal elementary/junior high schools.
In public elementary/junior high schools, tuition and textbooks are provided free of charge, but school-provided lunches are fee-based. Junior high schools usually have their own uniforms for students to wear.
A notice about health check-ups for children entering elementary school is sent in October the year before elementary school entry to all households with children registered as foreign residents in Sapporo. A Notice for Enrolling in Elementary School is sent in January to those who take health check-ups at designated sites. Elementary schools explain the preparations necessary before entry.
Those wishing to send their children to international or private schools should apply directly to the relevant school.
More than 90% of junior high school graduates go on to study at senior high school. To enter high school, applicants are required to pass the entrance examination held by each school. Those who graduate from junior high school in Japan or those who are certified as having received an equivalent level of school education are eligible to take the examination.
Sapporo Odori High School (Kita 2-jo Nishi 11-chome, Chuo-ku) has special admission quotas for foreign citizens and returnee students in its entrance examination, and also provides Japanese language lessons to students. For details, contact Sapporo Odori High School (Tel: 011-251-0229).
URL:http://www.odori-h.sapporo-c.ed.jp/
(Japanese)
Hokkaido International School provides education for non-Japanese students who find attending Japanese schools difficult due to language problems or concerns about education continuity. The school offers education for levels from kindergarten through high school. All classes are taught in English.
Hokkaido Korean Primary, Middle and High School offers education for Korean residents in Japan. In addition to subjects similar to those taught in Japanese elementary/junior high/senior high schools, students learn the Korean language and customs.