The most important thing to know about BST is recent enough that most descriptions of the school are wrong. It taught A Levels for over a decade, and it no longer does. The school was authorized as an IB World School and began delivering the IB Diploma in August 2025, and its final A Level cohort finished in summer 2026. So a child now follows the English National Curriculum from Nursery through Year 9, sits GCSEs and IGCSEs in Years 10 and 11, and then takes the IB Diploma in the sixth form. For a family choosing on qualifications, that is a different school from the one described in older guides, and the first Diploma results will not appear until July 2027.
The second thing is geography, and it has also changed. BST runs two campuses, split strictly by age: Nursery to Year 6 at the purpose-built Azabudai Hills campus in Minato, opened in August 2023, and Years 7 to 13 at the Showa campus in Setagaya, near Sangenjaya. The old primary site in Shibuya was vacated when Azabudai Hills opened, so any description placing primary children in Shibuya is out of date. A family with children in both halves of the school runs two drop-offs across central Tokyo, softened by a shuttle between the campuses.
Families come to BST for the British structure, the uniform, the house system, and a curriculum they recognize, and often because a child will return to the United Kingdom or has come from a British school elsewhere in Asia. The question that catches them out is the sixth form. A family assuming A Levels needs to know the school now runs the IB, which is a different final two years: six subjects rather than three, an extended essay, and a broader load. Whether that is an improvement depends entirely on the child, and it is worth deciding deliberately rather than discovering it in Year 11.
We teach families remotely across roughly eight countries, and we work with families in Japan, though our Japan experience to date is in Kansai rather than Tokyo. We are not a school, we have no affiliation with BST and no referral arrangement with any school in this guide. What we help with is the academic English a British school assumes at entry, the IGCSE years, and the transition into a Diploma that asks for more breadth than A Levels did. For families from Taiwan or Hong Kong there is a further point in BST's favour: it teaches Mandarin in the secondary school, which no other school in this guide does.
The orienting facts, each drawn from the school's own materials and checked in September 2026. Figures are the school's own, in Japanese yen, and are not converted.
BST is a not-for-profit school governed by a board of trustees, teaching the English National Curriculum adapted for an international setting, with English year groups and a September to June year in three terms. It is an authorized IB World School as of 2025, a Cambridge International center, and its alternative BST Diploma is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. It publishes its fees in full, in yen, which is why this guide can carry them. One note on inspection: the most recent British Schools Overseas inspection this guide could verify on the school's own site dates from March 2015, when BST was rated excellent in all eight categories, and a family wanting a current judgment should ask the school whether a newer report exists.
BST publishes a full fee schedule, billed across three terms in the British pattern. The tables below are the school's own figures for the 2026 to 2027 year, in yen, and this guide does not convert them.
A new family pays ¥1,220,000 in one-time joining fees before tuition: ¥40,000 to apply, an enrollment fee of ¥500,000, and an educational resources fee of ¥680,000, all non-refundable and payable within two weeks of invoice. On top of tuition an annual capital development fee of ¥100,000 applies every year. There are no sibling discounts, and tuition excludes lunches, uniform, the bus, instrumental lessons, some examination fees, and specialist learning support, which is charged separately at an amount the school does not publish.
Billed across three terms. Excludes the ¥100,000 annual capital development fee.
| Year band | Per year | With capital fee |
|---|---|---|
| Primary, Nursery to Year 6 | ¥2,960,000 | ¥3,060,000 |
| Years 7 to 9 | ¥2,980,000 | ¥3,080,000 |
| Years 10 to 13 | ¥3,070,000 | ¥3,170,000 |
Source: the school's own fees page, 2026 to 2027 schedule. Checked September 2026.
| Item | Amount | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Application fee | ¥40,000 | Per application, non-refundable |
| Enrollment fee | ¥500,000 | New students, one time, non-refundable |
| Educational resources fee | ¥680,000 | New students, one time, non-refundable |
| Capital development fee | ¥100,000 | Annual, all year groups |
| Refundable deposit | None | No refundable deposit appears on the schedule |
| Shuttle bus | Not published | Between campuses and Shibuya. Booked and paid a term ahead |
| Uniform, lunches, some exam fees | Not published | Charged separately, outside tuition |
| Sibling discount | None | The school offers no sibling reduction |
For a new primary child in 2026 to 2027, tuition of ¥2,960,000 plus the capital development fee of ¥100,000 and the one-time fees of ¥1,220,000 comes to ¥4,280,000 before uniform, lunches, and the bus. For a new sixth former the same arithmetic gives ¥4,390,000. Later years fall back to tuition plus the ¥100,000 capital fee. These totals are Harland's arithmetic on the school's own figures, labelled as such.
| Years served | Nursery, age three, to Year 13, age 18. Placement is strictly by age, with no out-of-year placement |
|---|---|
| Campuses | Azabudai Hills, Minato, Nursery to Year 6, opened August 2023. Showa, Setagaya, Years 7 to 13. A sports ground in west Tokyo |
| Enrollment | More than 1,400 students and around 70 nationalities, per the school's own homepage. Its FAQ says around 65 nationalities |
| Curriculum | English National Curriculum adapted internationally. GCSE and IGCSE in Years 10 to 11, then the IB Diploma, the BST Diploma, or BTEC courses in the sixth form |
| Sixth form | IB Diploma from August 2025. A Levels phased out, final cohort summer 2026. First IB results due July 2027 |
| Results 2026 | GCSE and IGCSE, 72 percent at 9 to 7 or A star to A. A Level, 51 percent A star to A. The school notes it is non-selective |
| Languages | Japanese from Nursery, French from Year 4. French, Japanese, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese in the secondary school |
| Accreditation | IB World School from 2025, Cambridge International center, and a WASC-accredited BST Diploma. Last verifiable BSO inspection March 2015, excellent in all categories |
| Admissions | Applications open in mid-November each year and are not rolling. Decisions from March into summer. Most year groups are typically full |
| Eligibility | No nationality bar. English proficiency for age required, and one parent must communicate effectively in English. The school does not sponsor student visas |
Where a row reads "not published," the figure does not appear on the school's own pages. Where the school's own homepage and FAQ differ on nationalities, both are shown. All figures in yen, checked September 2026.
BST grew from a primary school for British families into a full through-school, and its recent estate changes are the visible result of that growth.
The school was established as a trust in 1988 and opened in 1989, with Margaret Thatcher, then Prime Minister, performing the opening. It began as a primary school on a single site in Shibuya, serving British families posted to Tokyo, and grew through partnerships with two Japanese institutions, Shibuya Kyoiku Gakuen and Showa Women's University, whose campus still houses the secondary school. A senior school and A Levels arrived in 2010 and 2011, and the first Year 13 cohort graduated in 2012, which made BST a full three-to-eighteen school for the first time.
The last three years have reshaped it again. The Azabudai Hills campus opened to students in August 2023, built in partnership with a Tokyo developer inside a new district near Tokyo Tower, and it brought together primary children who had previously been split across sites. A refurbished secondary followed in 2025, the same year the school became an IB World School. BST is a not-for-profit governed by a board of trustees, and its stated mission is to nurture each student's potential and help them build a strong sense of self around purpose and passion. Ian Clayton is Principal.
BST teaches the English National Curriculum adapted for an international setting, in English year groups, with a September start and three terms. The sixth form is where the school has changed most.
Nursery and Reception run an Early Years program, Years 1 to 6 the primary curriculum, and Years 7 to 9 Key Stage 3, before students take a combination of GCSEs and IGCSEs in Years 10 and 11, with Cambridge International as the school's visible examination partner. Classes hold twenty in the earliest years and twenty-two thereafter, with a class teacher and an educational assistant in every primary class. The school describes itself as non-selective, which is worth holding in mind when reading its results, and it runs a house system, a uniform, and an outdoor education program with residential trips from Year 1 upward.
The sixth form now offers three routes rather than A Levels: the IB Diploma, which the school was authorized to deliver from August 2025, the BST Diploma accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, and BTEC courses in enterprise and sport that can sit inside the BST Diploma. A family should understand what that change means in practice, since the Diploma asks for six subjects, an extended essay, and a theory of knowledge course where A Levels asked for three subjects in depth. A family weighing systems rather than schools has The American School in Japan as the American, Advanced Placement route and Tokyo International School as an IB school from the earliest years rather than only at sixth form. On languages BST is the strongest school in this guide for a Chinese-speaking family: Japanese runs from Nursery and French from Year 4, and the secondary school offers French, Japanese, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese. The school does not publish whether it separates native and heritage speakers from beginners, so ask about the level a child would join.
BST publishes its results in full, and the honest reading is that the record it has is for qualifications it is leaving behind.
For summer 2026 the school reports 72 percent of GCSE and IGCSE entries at grade 9 to 7 or A star to A, 86 percent at 9 to 6, and 98 percent at grade 4 and above. Its final A Level cohort in the same summer achieved 51 percent at A star to A and 91 percent at A star to C. The 2025 figures were comparable, with 68 percent at the top GCSE grades and 59 percent A star to A at A Level. The school is careful to note that it is not academically selective, which makes those figures stronger rather than weaker, and a family should read them in that light.
Recent leavers have gone to Cambridge, Imperial College London, University College London, the London School of Economics, Durham, Bristol, and St Andrews in Britain, to Princeton, Yale, Chicago, and New York University in the United States, to McGill, Toronto, and British Columbia in Canada, and to Waseda in Tokyo, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Taipei Medical University in Asia. The caveat is the same one that applies at any school changing its senior qualification: those destinations were earned on A Levels, and the first cohort to apply on IB Diploma results graduates in July 2027. The pathway is well established, the school is experienced at university guidance, but the IB record itself does not exist yet.
Unlike most schools in this guide, BST does not run rolling admissions. Applications open in mid-November for the following academic year and must be made afresh each year, review runs from early February to late June, interviews and assessments where required fall between late February and late June, and decisions begin in early March and continue into the summer. For year groups that are full, and the school says most typically are, availability may not be clear until May or later. The steps are straightforward: an enquiry form, then an application with the ¥40,000 fee, then a reference from the current school, after which an applicant sits in the pool until a place is foreseen.
The annual cycle deserves planning. means a family relocating mid-year has fewer options than at a rolling-admissions school, so contact the school early and ask directly about the year group in question. And sixth form entry deserves a specific question: British schools normally set minimum GCSE or IGCSE grades for entry to a Diploma or A Level program, and BST does not publish its threshold on its public pages, holding it in a downloadable options booklet instead. A family applying into Year 12 should ask what grades the school expects before assuming a place is available.
Harland is not a school and does not replace BST. We are a 1-on-1 tutoring academy, and we work with families in Japan and across roughly eight countries remotely, in the three places this school's shape creates real work for a family: getting in, the IGCSE years, and the move into the Diploma.
No. BST was authorized as an IB World School and began the IB Diploma in August 2025, and its final A Level cohort finished in summer 2026. Years 10 and 11 still lead to GCSE and IGCSE, so the school is British through the lower and middle years and IB at sixth form. A family who specifically wants A Levels needs a different school, and the first BST Diploma results will not appear until July 2027.
Two campuses, split strictly by age. Nursery to Year 6 is at the Azabudai Hills campus in Minato, which opened in August 2023, and Years 7 to 13 are at the Showa campus in Setagaya, near Sangenjaya and two stops from Shibuya. The old Shibuya primary site was vacated when Azabudai Hills opened, so any description of a primary campus in Shibuya is out of date. A shuttle runs between the campuses for families with children in both.
For 2026 to 2027 the school publishes annual tuition of ¥2,960,000 for primary, ¥2,980,000 for Years 7 to 9, and ¥3,070,000 for Years 10 to 13, billed across three terms, plus an annual capital development fee of ¥100,000. A new family also pays ¥40,000 to apply, an enrollment fee of ¥500,000, and an educational resources fee of ¥680,000, none refundable, so a first year in primary comes to about ¥4,280,000. There are no sibling discounts.
For summer 2026 the school reports 72 percent of GCSE and IGCSE entries at grade 9 to 7 or A star to A, and 98 percent at grade 4 or above. Its final A Level cohort in 2026 achieved 51 percent A star to A and 91 percent A star to C. Recent leavers have gone to Cambridge, Imperial, University College London, the London School of Economics, Princeton, Yale, and Waseda among others. The school notes it is not academically selective, which is the right frame for reading those figures.
Japanese is taught from Nursery and carried through to examination level, and French begins in Year 4. In the secondary school, French, Japanese, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese are all offered as modern foreign languages, which makes BST the one school in this guide where a child can continue Chinese on the timetable. The school does not publish whether it runs a separate track for native or heritage speakers, so a family should ask about the level directly.
Our Student Coordinator speaks with relocating families regularly, often before a posting is confirmed, and can help you think through what the move from A Levels to the IB means for an older child, how the annual admissions cycle works, and how to prepare for an English assessment. We work with families remotely. We start by listening.