If you are searching for international schools in Kanagawa Prefecture, you are probably somewhere in the middle of a difficult calculation. There are famous schools in Yokohama — but you live in Fujisawa, or Atsugi, or Odawara. Can a seven-year-old really make that commute every morning? And once you see the fees, can your family sustain them for twelve years?
Kanagawa is one of Japan’s most international places: 284,889 foreign residents as of 1 January 2025 (prefectural survey), the fourth-highest of any prefecture, or roughly one in every 32 residents. But international schools are not spread evenly across it. This guide maps every international school we could verify in Kanagawa Prefecture, area by area, with realistic fee ranges — and it is honest about what to do when nothing within commuting distance fits.
International schools in Kanagawa Prefecture: the landscape and what they cost
The single most important fact about international schools in Kanagawa is concentration. Almost every school that carries students from early years all the way to Grade 12 sits inside Yokohama City, and most of those cluster on the historic Yamate bluff and around Kannai in Naka Ward. Yokohama International School (founded 1924), St. Maur International School (often described as the oldest international school in Asia), IB-authorised CGK International School, the CBSE-curriculum India International School in Japan, and the German School Tokyo Yokohama are all Yokohama addresses.
Outside Yokohama and Kawasaki, the picture changes sharply. Shonan, central Kanagawa, western Kanagawa and the Miura peninsula are served mainly by international preschools and small schools that stop at elementary age. If your requirement is “an international school my child can attend from Grade 1 through high school, from our home,” the realistic answer in most of the prefecture is Yokohama or Tokyo.
Fees follow the same structure, in roughly three tiers:
- Large Yokohama schools (IB, British, American): approximately JPY 2.7m–3.7m per year, plus entrance fees, registration, facility levies and bus charges
- Indian, Chinese-heritage and small independent schools: roughly JPY 600,000–1.5m per year
- Preschools: roughly JPY 30,000–120,000 per month, with some ages 3–5 eligible for Japan’s early-childhood education subsidy
For a line-by-line look at what sits behind those headline numbers, see our breakdown of what international school really costs in Japan. Knowing which fees are hidden changes the questions you ask on a campus tour.
International schools in Kanagawa by area
Below is what we could verify from public sources. Please note: information here reflects publicly available data as of July 2026. Fees, age ranges and availability change — always confirm with the school directly.
Yokohama — the centre of gravity
This is where the prefecture’s full-pathway schools live. In practice it is the only part of Kanagawa where a family can plan an entire K–12 international education without relocating.
- Yokohama International School (YIS) — Yamate, Naka Ward; full IB continuum; age 3 to Grade 12
- St. Maur International School — Yamate; American-style plus IB Diploma; age 2.5 to Grade 12
- Horizon Japan International School — Kanagawa Ward; IB; age 2.5 to Grade 12
- CGK International School — Naka and Minami Wards; IB World School; from age 2 through elementary
- India International School in Japan (IISJ) — Kirigaoka, Midori Ward; CBSE; roughly JPY 610,000–1.22m a year, among the most affordable in the prefecture
- German School Tokyo Yokohama (DSTY) — Chigasaki-minami, Tsuzuki Ward; German curriculum; ages 3–18
- Yokohama Yamate Chinese School — Naka Ward; Chinese, Japanese and English; age 4 to junior high
- Yokohama Overseas Chinese School — Yamashita-cho; age 4 through high school
- YES International School Yokohama — Hiranuma, Nishi Ward; Grade 1 to Junior High 3
- Zoe International School — Bentendori, Naka Ward; ages 5–18
We compare curricula, fees and family fit school by school in our guide to the best international schools in Yokohama. If Yokohama is your target city, start there.
Kawasaki — early years, with easy access to both Tokyo and Yokohama
Kawasaki’s international schools cluster around Musashi-Kosugi and Kawasaki Station and are mostly preschool to lower-elementary. There is no full K–12 campus, but the city’s position between two hubs means many families begin here and transition later.
- Kawasaki International School (KIS) — Oshima, Kawasaki Ward; ages 2–9
- Laurus International School of Science — Musashi-Kosugi and Musashi-Shinjo campuses
- Kincarn International School — Shinkawa-dori, Kawasaki Ward
- Kids International Musashi-Kosugi — Nakahara Ward
- Creative Kids International Preschool — Nakahara Ward
Full details on all five are in our guide to international schools in Kawasaki.
Shonan — small, distinctive, community-rooted
Fujisawa, Chigasaki, Kamakura and Zushi have no large international campus, but they have something else: small schools with strong identities, serving the international and lifestyle-migrant families who have moved to the coast.
- Shonan International School — Hatori, Fujisawa (near Tsujido); NPO-operated; preschool through grade school. The programme references the Canadian Ontario curriculum, with maths also taught in Japanese. Published figures indicate an entrance fee from JPY 200,000 and annual tuition from around JPY 900,000 (confirm directly). Entry at grade-school level requires a letter of recommendation
- Shonan Hokulea Gakuen — Fujisawa; opened April 2022; ages 6–15. An alternative school built on the Dutch-developed Jena Plan, inquiry learning and Japanese-English bilingualism. Published fees: JPY 270,000 entrance, JPY 100,000 per month tuition
- Kanagawa International School — campuses in Totsuka (Yokohama) and Fujisawa; early years focus
- mush-ROOM International Preschool — Tsujido, Fujisawa; opened 2009
- Nobile Kids Shonan — Fujisawa, Tsujido and Chigasaki
- Cosmos International School — Kamakura and Zushi; English-immersion nursery
- Kamakurayama International School — Kamakura; small school combining music and English
If you need Shonan schooling beyond kindergarten, the realistic shortlist is short. Because cohorts are tiny, availability often decides the outcome before fit does — ask about openings early.
Yokosuka and Miura — a major development arriving in 2027
- Hayama International School — Akiya, Yokosuka; preschool through elementary, built around a “Play, Think and Learn” philosophy, and eligible for Japan’s early-childhood subsidy
- Akiya Hayama International Academy (provisional name) — planned to open in 2027 in the Shonan International Village BC district straddling Yokosuka City and Hayama Town. It will incorporate the educational philosophy of the International Baccalaureate, run from kindergarten (age 4) through the end of middle school, and take up to 440 students. AIES, a subsidiary of Aoba-BBT, has announced support for the establishment project
Note that the schools inside the US naval and army bases at Yokosuka and Zama serve US-affiliated military families only and are not open to the general public.
Central Kanagawa (Sagamihara, Yamato, Zama, Atsugi, Ebina) — a rare hybrid model
The standout here is LCA International Elementary School in Sagamihara. It is unusual nationally: a MEXT-accredited private elementary school (an ichijo-ko) that nonetheless delivers English-immersion education under a special curriculum designation. That structure resolves a worry many families have about international schools in Japan — whether the years count toward Japanese compulsory-education completion. Published 2023 first-year costs were about JPY 2,815,000 in total, including a JPY 1m entrance fee, a JPY 300,000 deposit and JPY 1.32m annual tuition (per Resemom). Its sister LCA International Preschool near Aihara Station qualifies for the early-childhood subsidy.
- Central Forest International School — Chuo-Rinkan, Yamato City; IEYC curriculum; early years
- Sachi International School — Sagami-Ono, Sagamihara; bilingual English and Japanese
- Kids International — several branches reaching into central and northern Kanagawa
Western Kanagawa (Odawara, Hiratsuka, Hadano) — Odawara got its first in 2025
Western Kanagawa was long described as having no international school at all. That changed when YES International School Odawara opened in spring 2025, in a renovated building beside the west exit of Odawara Station. It is a small elementary-age school that treats English, Japanese and programming as three languages, organised around three Cs — consideration, critical thinking and creativity — with inquiry- and project-based learning.
- Hiratsuka International School — Momohama-cho, Hiratsuka; preschool
Further west and north — Hadano, Minami-Ashigara, Aikawa, Tsukui — schools that continue past elementary remain genuinely hard to find. You can check neighbouring prefectures through our prefecture-by-prefecture index of international schools in Japan (in Japanese).
The public-school route
If your goal is a rigorous English-medium education rather than an international school specifically, Yokohama Kokusai (International) High School, a Kanagawa prefectural school, runs an International Baccalaureate course — one of very few public schools in Japan where the IB Diploma is available. The cost gap versus private international schools is enormous. Entry requirements are distinctive, so start researching during junior high.
How to choose the right fit for your family
In Kanagawa, the first decision is not which school — it is what your family will optimise for. The rail network radiates toward Tokyo rather than across the prefecture, so a school 25km away can still be 70 minutes each way.
Consider a family in Fujisawa sending a child to Yamate: train plus a steep hill, close to an hour each way, every day, in the rain and in the winter dark. For a six-year-old that is not a detail. Choose the small local school instead and the commute becomes easy — but you will need a second plan for junior high onward.
Five things worth checking before you fall in love with a campus: (1) door-to-door commute time on a bad-weather day; (2) the top age the school goes to, and where graduates actually go next; (3) not the annual fee but the total to graduation; (4) how the school interacts with Japanese compulsory-education requirements; (5) support for Japanese and other home languages. Point four matters most for the smaller schools in the prefecture.
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When nothing is within reach — the online option
Some readers will finish the list above and conclude that nothing fits. From Atsugi, Odawara or Hadano, a daily commute to Yamate is not realistic; the nearby schools stop at age six. That gap is where a large number of Kanagawa families quietly give up on international education.
NIJIN GLOBAL ACADEMY (NGA) is an online international school opening in September 2027. It is operated by NIJIN Inc. in Japan, which also runs NIJIN Academy, an alternative school with more than 1,000 enrolled students. NGA serves ages 6–18 across Asia and Oceania, wherever they live.
Three things define it. We reject ranking children by test scores. We teach in small, dialogue-centred groups where students speak rather than only listen. And everything points at one aim: learning to like yourself and the world. The design assumes Japanese-language support underneath, so children move into English gradually rather than being dropped into it. We are working to make fees around one-fifth of a face-to-face international school.
The honest caveats: NGA has not opened yet, so there are no graduate outcomes to show. And an online school cannot replicate a schoolyard, a sports field, or the walk home with friends. What it can do is make sure that “there is no school near us” stops being the reason a family gives up — whichever town in Kanagawa you live in.
Frequently asked questions
Q. Can we reach an international school from anywhere in Kanagawa Prefecture?
A. Not realistically. Schools that continue past elementary are concentrated in Yokohama, which means roughly an hour each way from Shonan, central or western Kanagawa. School bus catchments vary enormously between schools, so once you have a target school, the very first question should be whether a bus reaches your nearest station. Families who skip that check often burn out in the first year.
Q. Can we commute to a school in Tokyo or another neighbouring prefecture?
A. Yes, and many do — particularly from Kawasaki and northern Yokohama. But long commutes are hard on younger children, so a common pattern is elementary school within Kanagawa and a move to a Tokyo school from junior high. Factor in commuter-pass costs, the number of transfers, and whether a parent could reach the school quickly in an emergency.
Q. What Japanese-language support is available?
A. It varies widely. Shonan International School teaches maths in Japanese as well as English; Shonan Hokulea Gakuen and LCA explicitly aim at Japanese-English bilingualism; other schools are close to English-only. If you are raising a child in Japan long term, ask concretely how many hours a week of Japanese instruction there are and who teaches them, rather than accepting a general reassurance.
Not the school you can get into — the place your child can keep going
Kanagawa is one of the most international corners of Japan. Even so, the right school may not be within walking distance of your home. That is not a failure of your planning; it is simply how the map looks.
What matters in the end is less whether a child can be admitted and more whether they can stay happy there for years. Commute fatigue, financial strain, the limits of a parent’s driving schedule — children absorb all of it eventually. So work backwards from what is sustainable, not from what is impressive.
From the Yamate bluff, from a house near the Shonan coast, from the streets around Odawara Station, or from your own living room — there are more entrances to a global education than it first appears.
