Japan's first public school for foreign students

NAGOYA Aichi Prefecture's education board plans to open what it says is Japan's first combined public junior and senior high school for students with foreign roots who need Japanese language training.

The process begins at Koromodai High School in the city of Toyota, which admits the highest number of students with foreign roots through a special admission quota and is already putting effort into Japanese language classes. In academic 2023, Koromodai will host the development of a curriculum taught in both Japanese and the students' native languages.

In two to three years, the education board aims to transfer that curriculum to a new, integrated junior and senior high school for students studying Japanese as a second language, in cooperation with the Toyota city authorities.

The board continues to support areas with high numbers of truant students and those with foreign roots, and will open classes at the Prefectural Toyohashi Technical High School in April 2025, according to an announcement earlier in the day.