Q. A 16-year-old child has moved to Japan. Since the child cannot speak Japanese, the child would like to enter junior high school to study Japanese and then aim to go on to high school. Can the child transfer to a junior high school?

 

A. In Japanese schools, the grade is determined by the student's age at the start of the school year. There is no grade skipping or repeating.

Any child who is 16 years old and has completed the 9th grade (the period of compulsory education in Japan) in their home country cannot enter a Japanese junior high school. It is possible to take the entrance exam for a Japanese high school, so it would be a good idea to study Japanese at a Japanese language school or other institution and then take the high school entrance exam, which starts around January.

A student who has not completed the 9th grade in his/her home country for some reason may be able to be accepted by a junior high school. Another option is to go to a night school. If you go on to high school and graduate, your path to the future will open up, so don't give up and keep studying hard.