Tokyo International School is a small, non-profit IB World School in Minato, and two things about it changed very recently. It completed the IB continuum: authorized for the Primary Years Programme in 2005 and the Middle Years Programme in 2007, it added the Diploma only in May 2025, ran Grade 11 for the first time in August 2025, and is teaching Grade 12 for the first time in 2026 to 2027. And it moved campus in August 2026, from the purpose-built Minami-Azabu building it occupied since 2013 to a new site at Takanawa Gateway City in Mita. A family reading older material about this school is reading about a different institution in both respects.
What follows from the first change is the most important thing on this page. The Diploma here has no track record yet: the first candidates sit their examinations in May 2027, so there are no results, no graduate destinations, and no cohort to ask about. For a family with a young child that hardly matters, and TIS's primary and middle years are long established. A family wanting an IB Diploma with a track record has Seisen International School for a daughter and St. Mary's International School for a son, both of which have run the Diploma for decades. For a family with a teenager it matters a great deal, and it is compounded by a rule the school states plainly: it does not accept new students into Grade 12 at all.
Families ask us about TIS for the reasons the school is known for: it is central, it is small, classes are capped at twenty-two, and it has been an IB school for two decades. The questions worth asking are the ones the school's reputation does not cover. Whether a brand-new Diploma is the right place for a strong sixteen-year-old, what the move to Takanawa Gateway City means for a family that chose the school partly for its old building, and, for a Taiwanese family, how a child keeps Chinese going at a school that does not teach it.
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 TIS and no referral arrangement with any school in this guide, which is what lets this page state the new-Diploma question plainly rather than glossing it. What we help with is the academic English an English-medium IB school assumes, the writing and analysis the Middle Years Programme and then the Diploma reward, and keeping a child's other languages alive when the timetable does not carry them.
The orienting facts, each drawn from the school's own materials and the IB's own directory, checked in September 2026. Figures are the school's own, in Japanese yen, and are not converted.
TIS is a non-profit school corporation recognized by Japan's Ministry of Education, accredited by the Council of International Schools and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, and an authorized IB World School for all three programmes. It teaches in English, and the school's own site notes it was the first international school in Tokyo to run a one-to-one laptop program. It publishes its fees in full, in yen, which is why this guide can carry them. A caution when reading the school's own pages: parts of the site are out of date, still describing TIS as a Diploma candidate school and as running only to Grade 8, and this guide follows the IB's dated authorisations instead.
TIS publishes a full fee schedule. The annual figure combines tuition and a building fee, billed across three terms, with returning families able to pay in full in May. 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 ¥1,430,000 in one-time fees on top of the first year's tuition: ¥30,000 to apply, ¥400,000 to register, and a development fee of ¥1,000,000, none of it refundable. Worth noting for a family planning ahead, these fees rose sharply in a single year: the one-time total was ¥1,230,000 in 2025 to 2026, and annual tuition rose by ¥300,000 to ¥350,000 a band. The school states it provides no financial assistance or scholarships of any kind.
Billed across three terms, due in May, October, and January. Includes the ¥200,000 building fee.
| Grade band | Per year |
|---|---|
| Kindergarten to Grade 2 | ¥3,300,000 |
| Grades 3 to 5 | ¥3,400,000 |
| Grades 6 to 9 | ¥3,500,000 |
| Grades 10 to 12 | ¥3,600,000 |
Source: the school's own school fees page, 2026 to 2027 schedule. Checked September 2026.
| Item | Amount | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Application fee | ¥30,000 | Per application, non-refundable |
| Registration fee | ¥400,000 | New students, one time, non-refundable |
| Development fee | ¥1,000,000 | New students, one time, non-refundable |
| School bus | ¥280,000 one way, ¥380,000 return | Optional, per year |
| Extended childcare | ¥260,000 a year, or ¥2,000 a session | Kindergarten to Grade 5, optional |
| Laptop | Family provides | A MacBook from Grade 6, to the school's specification |
| Refundable deposit | None published | No refundable deposit appears on the fee schedule |
| Financial assistance | None | The school states it offers no assistance or scholarships |
For a new Grade 10 student in 2026 to 2027, the annual tuition and building fee of ¥3,600,000 plus the one-time fees of ¥1,430,000 comes to ¥5,030,000 before the bus, a laptop, and lunch. Adding a return bus place brings it to ¥5,410,000. Later years fall back to the annual figure alone. These totals are Harland's arithmetic on the school's own figures, shown so a family can see the real first year rather than the tuition line.
| Grades served | Kindergarten, age five, to Grade 12. Grade 10 added 2024, Grade 11 in 2025, Grade 12 in 2026 |
|---|---|
| Enrollment | The school's own pages give both "460 and more" and "500 and more," around 70 nationalities. No single dated figure is published |
| Curriculum | IB continuum only. Primary Years Kindergarten to Grade 5, Middle Years Grades 6 to 10, Diploma Grades 11 to 12. Not an AP or A Level school |
| IB authorisation | Primary Years 12 December 2005, Middle Years 19 December 2007, Diploma 23 May 2025, per the IB's own directory |
| Diploma results | None yet. The first candidates sit examinations in May 2027, so no scores or destinations are published |
| Accreditation | Council of International Schools since 2004, and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. A recognized school corporation in Japan since 2017 |
| Class size | Capped at 22 |
| Languages | English medium. Japanese for all students Kindergarten to Grade 10. No Mandarin offered |
| Admissions | Rolling for most grades. Kindergarten screening and the Diploma run to their own timetables. No entry into Grade 12 |
| Eligibility | All nationalities, each limited to preserve the mix. Japanese nationals needing English support are not admitted. One parent must speak English fluently |
Where a row notes a divergence, both figures are the school's own and this guide carries both rather than choosing. Where the school's own pages contradict the IB's dated authorisations, this guide follows the IB directory. All figures in yen, checked September 2026.
TIS grew steadily rather than arriving fully formed, and its own account of that growth explains both its size and its recent expansion upward.
The school began in 1994 as a preschool with five students, founded by Patrick Newell and Ikuko Tsuboya-Newell to give mobile families an education that would transfer between countries. It expanded into the Primary Years Programme in 1997, moved through Meguro, Mita, and a campus rented from Minato ward, gained accreditation from the Council of International Schools in 2004, and was authorized for the Primary Years Programme in 2005 and the Middle Years Programme in 2007. In 2013 it opened a purpose-built campus in Minami-Azabu, and in 2017 it became a recognized school corporation and a non-profit, with Ikuko Tsuboya-Newell taking the chair of its board.
The last three years have been the school's biggest change since it was founded. Grade 10 arrived in 2024, completing the Middle Years Programme. Grade 11 and the Diploma followed in 2025, and Grade 12 in 2026, the same year the school moved to Takanawa Gateway City in Mita. Its stated values, written by its own students in 2020, are trust, inspire, and support, and its governance is a board elected at an annual general meeting. Daniel Reynolds is Head of School. A family should read the school's own site with the move and the expansion in mind, since several pages have not caught up with either.
TIS teaches the IB and nothing else, in English, from Kindergarten through Grade 12. The program is long established at the bottom and untested at the top.
The Primary Years Programme runs from Kindergarten to Grade 5, with around 230 children in two classes a grade and specialist teaching in art, library, music, physical education, and Japanese alongside the core. The Middle Years Programme covers Grades 6 to 10, around 160 students, with specialist subject teaching, design, and a service requirement, and every student from Grade 6 upward works on their own laptop, which the family provides. The Diploma runs in Grades 11 and 12. There is no Advanced Placement and no A Level route: a family choosing TIS is choosing the IB, and for a family weighing systems rather than schools, The American School in Japan is the American, Advanced Placement alternative in this guide.
The honest caveat concerns those top two years. The Diploma was authorized in May 2025 and the first candidates sit examinations in May 2027, so the school has no results, no graduate destinations, and no alumni to ask, and a family with a teenager is backing a program on the strength of the school's primary and middle years rather than any Diploma record. That is a reasonable bet for some families and not for others, and it is worth putting directly to the school: which subjects are running at Higher Level, how large the first cohort is, and who is teaching it. On languages, Japanese is taught to every student from Kindergarten to Grade 10, though the school publishes no separate track for heritage speakers and does not carry Japanese into the Diploma years on its own pages. Mandarin is not offered at all, which matters for a family moving from Taiwan or Hong Kong who wants a child's Chinese to keep developing.
This is the one school in the Tokyo guide with no outcomes to report, for a straightforward reason.
TIS taught only to Grade 10 until 2024, so it has never had a graduating class. Its first Diploma candidates entered Grade 11 in August 2025, reached Grade 12 in 2026, and sit their examinations in April and May 2027. The school therefore publishes no Diploma scores, no pass rate, and no university destination list, and it would have nothing honest to publish if it tried. Any average score or destination list a family encounters for TIS on a directory site is not the school's own data.
What a family can reasonably do instead is ask. The size of the first Diploma cohort, the Higher Level subjects running this year, the experience of the teachers delivering them, and where the school's Grade 10 leavers went in the years before the Diploma existed are all fair questions, and the answers tell a family more than a published average would at this stage. The school has university counseling in place. The first meaningful results will arrive in the summer of 2027, and a family choosing now is choosing before that evidence exists.
Admission is rolling for most grades, with two exceptions: Kindergarten places are decided through informal screening sessions in January and February, which overseas applicants can join remotely, and the Diploma years run to their own timetable. A family applies online, submits documents, and the leadership team and relevant teachers review the file, with an assessment given only where the school judges one necessary and a place has been identified. English proficiency is described as a factor rather than a requirement, except for the Japanese-national limit above. Mid-year entry is possible and the fee schedule has a payment option for it.
The planning points are these. There is no numbered waiting list: completed applications sit in a pool, and the school selects from it when a place opens and the mix works, weighing language, gender, and cultural balance alongside class size, so a family cannot judge its position from the outside and should ask directly about the year group. And the school does not accept new students into Grade 12 at all, which is unusual enough to catch families out. A rising Grade 12 student needs another school, and a family aiming at the Diploma should be applying for Grade 11.
Harland is not a school and does not replace TIS. 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 the schooling decision creates real work for a family: getting in, the school years, and the Diploma.
Yes, and it is new. TIS runs the full IB continuum, with the Primary Years Programme authorized in 2005, the Middle Years Programme in 2007, and the Diploma authorized in May 2025. Grade 11 began in August 2025 and Grade 12 runs for the first time in 2026 to 2027, so the first Diploma candidates sit their examinations in May 2027 and the school has no published results or graduate destinations yet.
No. The school's own admissions guidelines state that it accepts new students from Kindergarten to Grade 11 and does not accept entry into Grade 12. A family arriving in Tokyo with a rising Grade 12 student needs a different school, and a family aiming at the Diploma should plan to enter by Grade 11, which has its own application timeline separate from the school's rolling admissions.
For 2026 to 2027 the school publishes an annual total, tuition plus building fee, of ¥3,300,000 for Kindergarten to Grade 2, ¥3,400,000 for Grades 3 to 5, ¥3,500,000 for Grades 6 to 9, and ¥3,600,000 for Grades 10 to 12, billed in three terms. A new family also pays one-time fees totalling ¥1,430,000, made up of ¥30,000 to apply, ¥400,000 to register, and a ¥1,000,000 development fee, none of it refundable. The school states it offers no financial assistance or scholarships.
Only in part. TIS welcomes all nationalities including a limited number of Japanese students, but states plainly that it does not accept Japanese students who require English support, because Japanese families have more schooling options in Tokyo than expatriate families do. A Japanese-national child therefore needs to be competitive in English with their peers at the point of admission. Separately, attending an international school does not discharge Japan's compulsory-education obligation, which is a ward-office matter.
Japanese is taught to every student from Kindergarten through Grade 10 as part of the program, though the school does not publish a separate track for heritage speakers or Japanese at Diploma level. Mandarin is not offered at all. A family who wants their child to keep Chinese going would need to arrange it outside school.
Our Student Coordinator speaks with relocating families regularly, often before a posting is confirmed, and can help you think through what a new Diploma means for an older child, how the entry rules work, and how to prepare for an English-medium IB school. We work with families remotely. We start by listening.