More Tokyo Children Entering Private Junior High Schools After Graduating from Public Elementary Schools

Education Society Jan 22, 2024

While most Tokyo children continue in the public system at junior high level, there is a noticeable uptick in the number switching from public to private education after graduating from elementary school.

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According to a report by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, 98,518 students graduated from public elementary schools in Tokyo in March 2023. Among these, 76,611 (77.8%) went on to attend a public junior high school in Tokyo, while 19,521 (19.8%) entered a private junior high school in Tokyo. In addition, 443 graduates entered a national school and 1,769 continued to a junior high school outside Tokyo. The ratio of students entering a national or private junior high school thus exceeded 20%, at 20.2%. It is likely that many of those who continued to a junior high school outside of Tokyo also entered private schools in a neighboring prefecture after passing the entrance examination.

In Tokyo, the number and percentage of public elementary school graduates attending private junior high schools has been increasing in recent years. During the 2016 academic year, 15,626 public elementary school graduates went on to private schools (in March 2017), representing 17.0% of all graduates. In the recent survey, six years later, the number rose by 3,900 students, for an increase of 2.8 percentage points.

The trend is even clearer in central Tokyo. The table below lists the top 10 private school enrollment rates among Tokyo’s 23 municipalities. Bunkyō stands out as having the highest rate, with nearly one out of every two students attending a private junior high school.

Top Tokyo Municipalities by Proportion of Public Elementary Students Entering Private Junior High

1	Bunkyō	49.5%
2	Chūō	43.1%
3	Minato	42.5%
4	Meguro	39.4%
5	Chiyoda	37.5%
6	Shibuya	36.5%
7	Setagaya	35.4%
8	Shinjuku	34.9%
9	Suginami	32.7%
10	Toshima	32.1%

Created by Nippon.com based on data from the survey by Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education.

Among the municipalities with the highest rates of private school enrollment, Minato, Chūō, and Setagaya have the largest number of students who entered a junior high school outside of Tokyo (at 82, 94, and 164 students, respectively), which suggests an even higher percentage of students going on to private schools in those areas.

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