If you have been searching for international schools in Sendai, you have probably noticed the same two or three names coming up again and again — and very little detail beyond them. Sendai is the largest city in the Tohoku region, so it feels like there should be more. This guide lays out seven schools in Sendai that we were able to verify through official school websites and city data, with the details families actually need: which ward each school is in, the ages served, officially published fees, and how children get there. Where a school does not publish its fees, we say so rather than guessing. It also answers two questions that trip up almost every family here: what the difference is between an IB World School and an international school, and whether families elsewhere in Tohoku can realistically commute to Sendai. By the end, you should know exactly which schools are worth a visit for your family.
Quick Answer: Your Options in Sendai
If you only read one section, read this. Below are the schools covered in this guide, plus the online option — so you can see every route side by side before the details.
- Tohoku International School (TIS) — Ages: Kindergarten through Grade 12 / Fees: ¥990,000 (full-day kindergarten), ¥1,340,000 (grades 1-8), ¥1,540,000 (grades…
- Horizon Japan International School Sendai (Elementary and ELC) — Ages: Kindergarten (ELC) plus grades 1-6 / Fees: From April 2026, ¥1,135,000/year for elementary (tuition ¥960,000 + maintenance…
- Horizon Japan International School Sendai Aoba — Ages: 1-5 / Fees: Not published on the official site — enquire directly. The school does note that…
- Shukoh Junior High School and Sendai Ikuei Gakuen High School (Shukoh Course) — Ages: Junior high through high school; DP covers ages 16-19 over two years / Fees: High school, 2026 academic year: entrance fee ¥30,000, facility fee ¥100,000 on…
- Global Tree International School Sendai — Ages: 2-5 (preschool and bilingual kindergarten); after-school from kindergarten through… / Fees: No fee schedule for the main programmes on the official site — enquire directly.…
- Unison World English Nursery School — Ages: 2-5 / Fees: ¥80,000/month. For eligible children aged three to five, the ¥37,000 monthly…
- Little Wonders International School Sendai Izumi — Ages: Mainly 2-4, with kindergarten, elementary, and junior high classes available / Fees: No fee schedule found on the official site — enquire directly. Costs vary with how…
- NIJIN GLOBAL ACADEMY (online) — Ages 6–18 / opening September 2027, currently taking opening-update registrations / fees around one-fifth of a typical campus international school / Japanese-language support. An option when commute or fees are the wall.
International schools in Sendai: the landscape and what they cost
Three things define international education in Sendai, and it helps to know all three before you start booking tours.
First, only one school in the city takes children all the way through in English, from kindergarten to graduation: Tohoku International School in Izumi Ward. Second, most other options are early-years programmes. Many carry “international school” in their name, but children typically move on to a Japanese elementary school at age six. Third, the schools are concentrated in three wards — Izumi, Aoba, and Miyagino. We could not confirm any full-time international school in Taihaku or Wakabayashi Ward.
There is a reason for that concentration. According to the City of Sendai, 17,729 foreign residents were living in the city as of 30 April 2025. China (4,080), Nepal (2,923), Vietnam (1,993), and South Korea (1,844) together account for roughly 60% of that population, and students make up the largest single visa category at around 35%. Tohoku University and the wider research community drive much of Sendai’s international presence — which also means the population of school-age children is smaller than the headline number suggests. Fewer families, fewer schools.
The upside is cost. Full-time education through high school at Tohoku International School runs ¥990,000 to ¥1,690,000 per year (2026-2027 published fee schedule). Horizon Japan International School Sendai, an accredited Japanese elementary school with English immersion, is ¥1,135,000 per year from April 2026. Among preschools, Unison World English Nursery School publishes ¥80,000 per month (an effective ¥43,000 for children aged three to five who qualify for the subsidy), while several others do not publish fees at all and ask families to enquire directly. Children aged three to five may qualify for Japan’s early childhood education subsidy of up to ¥37,000 per month, which lowers the real cost at eligible facilities. Compared with Tokyo, where major international schools commonly charge ¥2,000,000 to ¥4,000,000 a year, Sendai is genuinely affordable. For a breakdown of what sits behind the headline tuition figure, see our guide to international school tuition costs. For options beyond the city limits, see our overview of international schools across Miyagi Prefecture.
Note: all figures reflect publicly available information as of July 2026. Fees are revised periodically — always confirm directly with each school.
7 international schools in Sendai worth knowing
Here are seven verified options, ordered so the differences between them are easy to see. Read them not as a ranking, but as a set of very different answers to the question of what your family needs at your child’s age, in your part of the city, at your budget.
1. Tohoku International School (TIS)
Tohoku International School (7-101-1 Yakata, Izumi-ku, Sendai) is the only school in the entire Tohoku region offering an English-medium education from kindergarten through grade 12. Run by Nanko Gakuen, it has served the region for close to 50 years and holds IB Primary Years Programme and IB Diploma Programme authorisation, along with WASC accreditation. All classes except Japanese language are taught in English, and English as an Additional Language support is available for students who need it. Admissions are rolling: applications are accepted up to six months ahead of the desired start date, and every applicant sits an interview of about an hour covering reading, writing, speaking, and mathematics to determine placement and EAL needs.
- Curriculum: English-medium, full-time; IB PYP and IB DP; WASC accredited
- Ages: Kindergarten through Grade 12
- Fees: ¥990,000 (full-day kindergarten), ¥1,340,000 (grades 1-8), ¥1,540,000 (grades 9-10), ¥1,690,000 (grades 11-12), including facility and heating/AC fees. Entrance fee ¥400,000 plus ¥15,000 administrative fee. EAL support ¥4,000-¥25,000 per month (2026-2027 published schedule)
- Best for: Families who want continuity in English through to graduation, or who may relocate internationally again
Transport is unusually well documented here. School buses serve five routes: Sendai Station (¥7,000/month), Yaotome (¥6,000), Daikannon (¥5,000), Akashidai (¥6,000), and Izumi Parktown (¥6,000). The Sendai Station route matters — it opens the school up to families in the city centre and, in principle, to those arriving by train from outside the city.
2. Horizon Japan International School Sendai (Elementary and ELC)
Horizon Japan International School Sendai (4-2-540 Takamori, Izumi-ku, Sendai) opened in 2016 as the first English immersion ichijoko in Tohoku — meaning it is a fully accredited Japanese elementary school, so attendance satisfies Japan’s compulsory education requirement. Mathematics, science, art, life studies, integrated studies, and IT are taught in English, or in English and Japanese, with roughly 50-60% of learning delivered in English. The school gained IB PYP authorisation in March 2022, covering both the kindergarten (ELC) and the elementary school. Classes are capped at 24 students, two classes per grade.
- Curriculum: Japanese national curriculum with English immersion; IB PYP (authorised March 2022)
- Ages: Kindergarten (ELC) plus grades 1-6
- Fees: From April 2026, ¥1,135,000/year for elementary (tuition ¥960,000 + maintenance ¥130,000 + materials ¥45,000) and ¥1,010,000/year for kindergarten. Admission fee ¥200,000 (¥100,000 for siblings, waived for internal progression), application fee ¥10,000. School bus ¥126,000-¥225,000/year (official fee page)
- Best for: Families who want an English-rich education while keeping Japanese school credentials and the option of Japanese secondary entrance exams
3. Horizon Japan International School Sendai Aoba
Horizon Japan International School Sendai Aoba (GC Aobadori Plaza 2F, 2-5-22 Ichibancho, Aoba-ku, Sendai), also presented as Abroad International School Sendai, is the group’s city-centre English immersion programme for children aged one to five. Learning happens through play, exploration, and hands-on activities, with morning care from 8:00 and afternoon care until 18:00. Saturday School, Summer School, and after-school English classes are also offered. The Ichibancho location makes it one of the few genuinely convenient options for dual-income families living in central Sendai.
- Curriculum: English immersion early years (play and inquiry based)
- Ages: 1-5
- Fees: Not published on the official site — enquire directly. The school does note that eligible families may receive around ¥37,000 per month through Japan’s early childhood education and care subsidy
- Best for: Central Sendai families starting English early, potentially feeding into the group’s elementary school in Izumi Ward
4. Shukoh Junior High School and Sendai Ikuei Gakuen High School (Shukoh Course)
Sendai Ikuei Gakuen High School (2-4-1 Miyagino, Miyagino-ku, Sendai) became the first IB Diploma Programme school in Tohoku in February 2015. Its affiliated Shukoh Junior High School is MYP authorised, making this the only place in the region where a student can move from MYP straight through to DP over six continuous years. One important caveat: this is a Japanese school, not an international school. The DP is delivered in dual language — English B and the arts in English, other subjects in Japanese — and final examinations may be sat in either language. If you are looking for full English immersion, this is not it. If you want an internationally recognised programme inside the Japanese system, it may be exactly right.
- Curriculum: IB MYP (junior high), IB DP in dual language (high school), plus the Japanese national curriculum
- Ages: Junior high through high school; DP covers ages 16-19 over two years
- Fees: High school, 2026 academic year: entrance fee ¥30,000, facility fee ¥100,000 on admission, tuition ¥576,000/year. With the national ¥457,000 tuition support grant applied, the school states the effective annual tuition is ¥119,000, plus ¥168,000/year in equipment maintenance (official fee page; the school notes grant details are not yet finalised). Confirm current junior high fees directly with the school
- Best for: Families targeting both a Japanese high school diploma and the IB Diploma, with strong Japanese language ability
5. Global Tree International School Sendai
Global Tree International School Sendai (Nishikicho, Aoba-ku, near Sendai Station) opened in June 2021 and is one of the newer arrivals. It combines curricula widely used in American and larger international schools with its own extensive-reading programme. Core hours run 9:00 to 14:00, with extended care from 7:30 to 18:30. What makes it stand out locally is that it does not stop at kindergarten: after-school programmes continue for kindergarten and elementary-age children, so families can keep an English environment going alongside a Japanese elementary school.
- Curriculum: English immersion plus a proprietary extensive reading programme
- Ages: 2-5 (preschool and bilingual kindergarten); after-school from kindergarten through elementary
- Fees: No fee schedule for the main programmes on the official site — enquire directly. Children aged three and over may qualify for the early childhood education subsidy
- Best for: Families commuting through central Sendai who want drop-off and pick-up on one line, and continuity after age six
6. Unison World English Nursery School
Unison World English Nursery School (Tsutsujigaoka, Miyagino-ku, about a ten-minute walk from Sendai Station) takes a trilingual approach — English, Chinese, and Japanese — with a maximum of 15 children per class and separate classes by age. The programme includes field trips, thematic learning, cooking, football, STEAM, and swimming, so English is used as the language of daily life rather than taught as a subject. Its position beside Sendai Station makes it workable for parents commuting into the city.
- Curriculum: Trilingual (English, Chinese, Japanese); thematic and STEAM learning
- Ages: 2-5
- Fees: ¥80,000/month. For eligible children aged three to five, the ¥37,000 monthly subsidy brings the family’s share to ¥43,000/month (official site)
- Best for: Families who want Chinese alongside English, and anyone building their day around Sendai Station
7. Little Wonders International School Sendai Izumi
Little Wonders International School Sendai Izumi (President City Building 2F, 1-28-22 Izumi-chuo, Izumi-ku, roughly five minutes’ walk from Izumi-chuo subway station) builds its programme on the Creative Curriculum, widely used in American early years education, with activities matched to each developmental stage. Alongside preschool there are kindergarten, elementary, and junior high classes, and families choose how many days per week to attend. It suits households that want a real English environment without committing to full-time international school hours or fees.
- Curriculum: English immersion based on the Creative Curriculum
- Ages: Mainly 2-4, with kindergarten, elementary, and junior high classes available
- Fees: No fee schedule found on the official site — enquire directly. Costs vary with how many days a week your child attends, so tell the school your intended schedule when you ask for a quote
- Best for: Families starting with two to four days a week, and anyone living around Izumi-chuo
Beyond these seven, Mori no Kodomo International School in central Aoba Ward offers English immersion, and the Carl English nursery group operates several English-medium childcare facilities across Aoba, Wakabayashi, and Miyagino wards. Capacity and entry requirements change year to year, so contact any school that interests you directly.
IB World School or international school? In Sendai, the difference matters
This is where most families in Sendai get confused. An IB World School and an international school can overlap, but they are not the same thing.
An international school teaches primarily in a foreign language, usually English, and often follows an overseas curriculum. If it is not an accredited Japanese school, attendance does not satisfy Japan’s compulsory education requirement — university access is instead secured through international accreditation. The IB, by contrast, is not a type of school at all. It is an international authorisation of a programme, and a Japanese school can hold it. Diploma Programmes taught largely in Japanese exist, including here in Sendai.
Line up the three schools above and the distinction becomes clear. TIS is an international school and an IB World School. Horizon Japan International School Sendai is an accredited Japanese school and an IB PYP school and English immersion. Sendai Ikuei Gakuen and Shukoh are Japanese schools with IB authorisation, taught mainly in Japanese. IB authorisation does not mean instruction in English. Decide first whether your priority is the language environment, the inquiry-based pedagogy, or the international university credential — the answer points to different schools.
Can you commute to Sendai from elsewhere in Tohoku?
If you live in Fukushima, Yamagata, Morioka, or a smaller city in Miyagi, you are not imagining the problem: for education in English beyond the early years, Tohoku effectively has one full-time school, and it is in Sendai.
On paper the distances look manageable. Fukushima to Sendai is roughly 20 to 30 minutes by Shinkansen, Morioka around 40 minutes, Ichinoseki about 30 minutes, and Yamagata roughly an hour and a quarter on the Senzan Line.
In practice, this is not a journey a primary-age child can make every morning for six years. Shinkansen commuter passes run into the hundreds of thousands of yen a year on top of tuition. TIS sits in Yakata, in northern Izumi Ward, so arriving at Sendai Station is only part of the trip — you still connect by school bus or subway plus bus, which can push a one-way journey from outside the city close to two hours. And then there is stamina: leaving home before seven and returning at dusk, five days a week, is a lot to ask of a seven-year-old. Most families who do choose a Sendai school from outside the city either wait until junior high or high school, or relocate.
So the honest answer is no, not for younger children in most cases. That does not mean there is nothing left to do.
Comparing your options honestly
Established international schools, smaller or newer preschools, and online international schooling are not competing for the title of “best”. They are answers to different constraints. Compare them on five things — affordability, ease of admission, commuting burden, in-person experiences such as a playground and school events, and support for Japanese and home languages — and the decision usually resolves quickly.
In Sendai, the row that usually decides it is the commute. Getting from Taihaku or Wakabayashi Ward to a school in Izumi can take close to an hour each way by subway and bus, and from outside the city it reshapes family life entirely. If you are choosing a preschool, think one step ahead now: what happens at age six? Families who ask that question early are never the ones scrambling in the autumn before elementary school starts. If you are an international family and Japanese is your worry rather than English, our sister service Tomodachi Japan, an online Japanese programme for children run by NIJIN, may help alongside whatever school you choose.
See how learning works online →
When fees or distance are the barrier: the eighth option
“We cannot get to Izumi every day.” “It was never going to work from outside the city.” “There is nothing for us once she turns six.” If you have said any of these, you are far from alone in Sendai. It is why we are building NIJIN GLOBAL ACADEMY (NGA), an online international school opening in September 2027.
NGA is run by NIJIN Inc., which operates NIJIN Academy, an alternative school in Japan with more than 1,000 students already enrolled. What we care about is moving away from ranking children by test scores. Learning happens in small groups built around dialogue, guided by a simple idea: come to love yourself and the world. NGA is for children aged 6 to 18 across Asia and Oceania, and where you live makes no difference — Izumi Ward, Taihaku Ward, Ishinomaki, Yamagata, the distance to the classroom is zero for everyone. Because Japanese-speaking support is built in, children can move toward English gradually rather than being dropped into it. We are aiming for tuition at roughly one fifth of a bricks-and-mortar international school.
And the honest caveats: we have not opened yet, so our track record is still ahead of us. An online school also cannot replicate a playground, or the feeling of sitting shoulder to shoulder in the same room. But for families in Sendai and across Tohoku, we think there is real value in turning “there is nothing near us, so we gave up” into “we did not have to travel to keep going.”
Frequently asked questions
Q. From what age can children start at an international school in Sendai?
A. Most early years programmes start between ages one and two — Horizon Japan International School Sendai Aoba accepts children from age one, while Unison World, Global Tree Sendai, and Little Wonders Sendai Izumi generally start around age two. For education in English beyond age six, the realistic options are Tohoku International School (kindergarten through grade 12) in Izumi Ward and Horizon Japan International School Sendai (kindergarten plus grades 1-6). If you are planning through junior high and high school, those two plus the IB programmes at Sendai Ikuei Gakuen are the schools to look at.
Q. Can a child with no English get in, and is there Japanese support?
A. Tohoku International School teaches every subject except Japanese in English but provides EAL support, with the entrance interview used to gauge how much a student needs (EAL costs ¥4,000-¥25,000 per month). Horizon Japan International School Sendai is deliberately bilingual, with Japanese teachers leading Japanese-language classes. The Diploma Programme at Sendai Ikuei Gakuen is dual language, with most subjects in Japanese. In other words, Sendai offers a spectrum from full English immersion to a Japanese-medium international programme — so match the school to your child’s current level rather than the other way round.
Q. Is mid-year transfer possible?
A. Tohoku International School admits students throughout the year and accepts applications up to six months before the intended start date; after a document review, an interview of about an hour covering reading, writing, speaking, and mathematics determines grade placement and EAL needs. Accredited Japanese schools such as Horizon Japan International School Sendai and Sendai Ikuei Gakuen follow the Japanese school calendar, so transfer places depend on the year and grade level. If you know your relocation date, contact schools around six months ahead.
Not being near a school does not have to end the conversation
Choosing a school in Sendai is a different exercise from choosing one in Tokyo. With fewer options, you have to understand each school properly and hold it against your own constraints — which is arguably healthier than drowning in choice. Start by contacting one school that caught your attention and asking for a tour. Half an hour on campus will tell you things no website ever will. And if nothing within reach turns out to fit, remember that not commuting is also a way of choosing. There is more than one route for your child to reach the world.
To compare every option across the wider prefecture, see our guide to international schools in Miyagi Prefecture, which covers schools outside this city and prefecture-wide fee ranges.
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