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Japan, Tokyo
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Yokohama International School opened on October 27, 1924, in a rented YMCA classroom with six students and one teacher, in the wake of the Great Kanto Earthquake. As enrollment grew, the school added facilities including a boarding house and by 1939 had over 100 students from 21 nationalities. World War II interrupted operations; the school closed in 1941 and its buildings were repurposed as a refugee center, with the original campus destroyed by fire in 1945. It was rebuilt in Yamate and reopened on September 15, 1955, and YIS was officially registered as a School Juridical Person in 1969. The IB Diploma Programme was introduced in 1986, YIS earned dual accreditation from ECIS and NEASC in 1991, and in January 2022 moved to a purpose-built campus in Honmoku, with the centenary celebrated on October 27, 2024.
YIS serves an international community with students from more than 49 nationalities and staff from more than 21 countries. The Japanese Culture Program provides intercultural learning across the IB framework with hands-on experiences in arts, drama, printmaking, and local cultural activities. Community life is reflected in In Our Words, which shares classroom innovations, cultural events, and service projects. Dragon Dining and The Street Café create daily social hubs on campus, offering diverse meals, allergen labeling, and opportunities for parents and students to connect.
The YIS Parent Hub hosts the PTSA, the Parent Teacher Student Association. The PTSA organizes events to connect families throughout the year, including cultural celebrations and casual coffee mornings. Past activities are highlighted on Instagram under
YES International School Tokyo is a learning community in Shibuya, opened in May 2018, for children who are homeschooling or who find standard school life difficult. The daily program is built around project-based learning, where mornings can start with “morning projects” exploring themes such as science, language, art and programming, alongside creative learning in music and art. Students also take part in practical routines such as a cooking class and shared lunch time. Weekly movement sessions that include capoeira and soccer. The school describes individual support tailored to each child’s pace. A distinctive feature is its official Discord server, “YES Elegant,” designed with parent visibility and student-led rule-making.
