What counts as an “online school” in Japan?

In Japanese you will see words like onrain sukuuru (オンラインスクール), onrain furii sukuuru (オンラインフリースクール, online free school) and metabaasu (メタバース, metaverse). None of these is a legal category. For children of elementary and junior high school age, most online programs are not accredited schools (“Article 1 schools”, ichijoko / 一条校) under Japan’s School Education Act. They are places to learn and connect, not a replacement for official enrollment.

It helps to think in categories rather than brand names.

1. Online free schools and online alternative schools

These are the online version of a free school: a community of children and staff who meet through video calls, chat or a shared virtual space. Some focus on belonging and conversation, others offer structured lessons, projects or clubs. Almost all run in Japanese.

2. Metaverse-type spaces

Some private providers, and some local governments, run virtual spaces where each child is represented by an avatar. Children can move around, talk by text or voice, and join activities without showing their face. For children who are anxious or sensitive to noise and crowds, this can feel much safer than a room of people.

3. ICT learning programs and study materials that the school recognizes

These include online drills, video lessons and learning apps. On their own they are study tools, not a school. But under certain conditions a child’s home learning with them can be counted as attendance at the enrolled school (see below). If you are considering one for that reason, the question to ask the provider is not “is this approved by MEXT” but “what records of my child’s study can you give me each month, in a form a Japanese principal can read”.

4. Online international schools

These teach mainly in English, or bilingually, often following a foreign or international curriculum. They may suit families planning an international path. Check carefully what qualification they lead to, since they do not grant Japanese school diplomas. See also our guide to international schools in Japan.

5. Online tutoring and cram schools

One-to-one tutoring or small online classes (juku / 塾) can help a child keep up in particular subjects or prepare for high school entrance. They usually offer study support rather than a community.

For older teenagers, correspondence high schools are a separate option: many are accredited high schools that use online learning and can award a Japanese high school diploma.

The five kinds side by side

Providers rarely describe themselves in these terms, so the table below is a way of sorting what you find. Where we could not verify a figure from an official source, we say so rather than guess. Fees for private providers in Japan are set by each provider and are not regulated, so the range from one service to the next is very wide.

“Double school”: keeping enrollment at the local school

Many families use what is sometimes called a “double school” (daburu sukuuru / ダブルスクール) approach: the child stays enrolled at the local elementary or junior high school, and spends their days learning with an online school. The local school keeps the official record and issues the graduation certificate; the online school is where the child actually learns and makes friends.

This matters for legal reasons. For a child with Japanese nationality, MEXT states that attending a school that is not an Article 1 school, such as an international school, does not in itself fulfill the parents’ legal schooling obligation. Keeping enrollment at the local school avoids this problem. For foreign-national children, there is no legal obligation to attend school in Japan, but they may attend public elementary and junior high schools free of tuition (MEXT). Many foreign-national families also keep local enrollment so that the door back to Japanese school stays open.

Keeping enrollment has practical benefits too. The school stays the route to the school counselor, to the school nurse’s room, to free textbooks, to the school lunch arrangement if your child ever goes back, and to the paperwork for high school entrance. It also keeps you in contact with the one person who can decide the attendance question. If regular contact with the school feels heavy right now, our page of Japanese phrases and message templates for talking to school has short scripts you can send instead of calling.

Japanese-language detail is in Nijiiro’s guide to double schoolingJA.

Can online learning count as attendance?

Yes, in some cases. A 2019 MEXT notice on supporting children who do not attend school (futoko / 不登校) sets out when learning at home using ICT (computers, the internet, remote learning systems and so on) can be counted as attendance (shusseki atsukai / 出席扱い). The principal of the enrolled school makes the decision.

It is worth knowing how common this is. In the MEXT survey for FY2024 (published October 2025), 13,261 elementary and junior high school students had home learning using ICT counted as attendance, out of 353,970 students recorded as futoko. That is fewer than four in a hundred. In the same survey, 42,978 students had counseling or guidance at a facility outside school counted as attendance. So the route exists and is growing, but it is not the default, and schools vary a great deal in how readily they use it.

Our page on attendance recognition and costs explains the wider rules, including the route through free schools and education support centers.

The seven conditions for ICT home learning, in plain English

MEXT’s notice sets out seven conditions. All of them are expected to be met, and the principal judges whether they are. The table restates them in plain English, with the practical version of each.

1. A sufficient relationship of cooperation is maintained between the guardians and the school. Someone at the school hears from you regularly. Even a short monthly message counts. If contact has broken down, repairing it is the first step.
2. The learning uses ICT (computers, the internet, remote learning systems) or similar means such as post or fax. Nearly any online program or posted workbook course can qualify on this point. It is the easiest condition to meet.
3. Face-to-face support, such as home visits, is provided regularly and continuously. The notice treats this as a precondition, and it is the condition that most often stops an application. Someone has to meet your child in person on a regular basis: the homeroom teacher, a school counselor, a school social worker, or staff from an outside facility.
4. The learning follows a planned program matched to the child’s level of understanding. A drill app used at random does not qualify. There should be a plan: which subjects, roughly how much, and how progress is checked.
5. The principal keeps track of the face-to-face support and the learning, through the homeroom teacher and the people involved. Reports have to reach the principal. Ask your provider for a monthly learning record, and agree with the school who sends it and when.
6. It is, in principle, for children who cannot receive counseling or guidance at a public or private facility outside school. If your child could attend an education support center or a local free school, the school may point there first. Say plainly why that is not workable right now.
7. Learning outcomes are reflected in assessment when the school judges the plan and content appropriate in light of its own curriculum. Grades are a separate judgment from attendance. A 2024 MEXT notice made it clearer that learning done while absent can be reflected in grades.

The notice also asks schools to be careful in two directions at once: not to let the arrangement encourage a child to stay isolated for a long time, and to teach children how to use devices and the internet safely. If your school raises either point, it is following the guidance rather than blocking you.

How to raise it with the school, step by step

Most families get further by asking in a calm, concrete order than by asking “can this count as attendance” in one message. Three steps that usually work.

A realistic timetable helps. Schools work to their own calendar, and term-end is a bad moment to start.

• This week: ask the online provider whether they issue a monthly learning record, in Japanese, that a school can accept.
• Within two weeks: send a short message to the homeroom teacher asking for a meeting about your child’s learning at home.
• At the meeting: show the program outline and ask directly about the ICT home learning arrangement under the 2019 notice. Bring the principal or head of guidance in if you can.
• Within a month: set up the face-to-face support, whether that is a home visit, a counselor session or a short visit to school.
• Every month: send the learning record, and keep your own copy.
• Each term: review with the school whether the arrangement still suits your child, and whether it is being recorded as agreed.

Japanese phrases for the attendance conversation

You do not need perfect Japanese. Short, polite sentences work better than long ones. Read them aloud, or show the Japanese column on your phone. For absence notifications and longer messages, see Japanese phrases and message templates for talking to school and our templates for telling a Japanese school your child is absent.

If you do not know where to start at all, our page on where to get help lists public services, and the learning place finder asks eight questions and suggests the kinds of place that may fit.

What qualification does my child end up with?

This is the question that worries parents most, and the answer is different at each stage. The short version: for elementary and junior high school, the diploma comes from the school your child is enrolled in, not from the online school. For high school, the online program itself has to be an accredited school, or your child needs another route to the qualification.

If your child is approaching 15, it is worth reading our guide to correspondence high schools before choosing an online program. Many correspondence high schools now deliver most teaching online, combining marked assignments (tensaku shido / 添削指導), a certain amount of in-person schooling (menkyo shido or sukuuringu / 面接指導・スクーリング) and examinations. The amount of in-person schooling differs by school, so ask before you apply, especially if travel is difficult.

Japanese-language services and English options: how to tell them apart

Almost every online free school and metaverse school in Japan runs in Japanese. Marketing pages are sometimes available in English, which can give the impression that lessons are too. These signals usually settle the question quickly.

If you live in Japan

A Japanese-language online school can still work well, even if your child’s Japanese is not strong, when the content is activity-based rather than lecture-based and staff are willing to slow down. Ask whether your child may keep the camera off, type instead of speak, and use a translation tool in chat. Many children who freeze in a physical Japanese classroom manage far better in a chat window. If your child has stopped speaking at school specifically, our article on selective mutism in a bilingual child may be useful.

If you want your child’s Japanese to keep developing while they are away from school, say so at the trial and ask how the provider handles a child at a different language level from the group. Full immersion with no support is rarely kind.

If you live outside Japan

Families abroad usually want one of two things: to keep a connection to Japanese language and school content, or to find an English-medium school after a difficult experience at an international school. These are different searches. For the first, look for services designed for children overseas, which are used to time zones and to mixed language levels. For the second, our articles on bullying at an international school, changing international schools mid-year and third culture kid anxiety may fit your situation better than this page does.

Time zones, daily rhythm and screen time

Making the clock work

For families outside Japan, the practical problem is rarely the lessons. It is the clock. A school running on Japan time means early mornings in Europe and late evenings in the Americas, every week, for months.

• Live or recorded? Recorded sessions remove the time zone problem but also the friendships. Ask how many live hours a week there are, and whether anything replaces a session you miss.
• Session times. A session before 7am or after 9pm rarely survives a whole term. Ask whether there are alternative time bands or a second group.
• School holidays. Japanese school terms do not line up with most other countries. Ask whether you can take a break in your local holidays without losing your place.
• Homework deadlines. Deadlines set in Japan time can fall in the middle of your night. Ask how flexible submission times are.
• Return visits to Japan. Some programs include in-person events or camps. Ask whether these are optional and what they cost.

On screen time, there is no official maximum for children in Japan that we could find. What MEXT does publish is guidance for schools and families on using devices safely. Its leaflet on children’s health and one-to-one devices advises keeping at least 30cm between the eyes and the screen, taking a break at least once every 30 minutes to look at something distant for 20 seconds or more, adjusting screen brightness to the room, sitting with the back straight and feet flat, and avoiding device use in the hour before sleep. That guidance was written for school devices, but it applies just as well at home.

Balancing screen time and social contact

Online learning can be a lifeline, but it works best as part of a wider week rather than the whole of it. Three ideas many families find useful:

There is no correct amount of screen time for every child. Watch how your child seems after a session: calmer and more connected is a good sign; more tired and isolated may mean a change is needed. If your child is autistic or has ADHD, see our page on neurodivergent children for further support.

Pros and cons of online schooling

What to check before you sign up

Online programs range from carefully run communities to little more than video libraries. Use these questions to compare them. Nijiiro’s Japanese guide to online free schoolsJA has more on choosing.

• Live or recorded? How many hours a week are live, with a real adult who knows your child’s name?
• Class size: How many children are in a session? Can quieter children take part without speaking?
• Language: Are sessions in Japanese, English or both? Is there support if your child’s Japanese or English is still developing?
• Time zone and timetable: Do the session times suit Japan time and your family’s routine?
• Safeguarding: How are staff checked and trained? Are sessions moderated? How do they handle bullying, private messages between children and sharing of images?
• Communication with the school: Will they provide reports that can support an attendance request?
• Cost: What is the full cost, including enrollment fees, devices and materials? What is the cancellation policy?
• Trial: Can your child try a session for free, or observe first?

Before you sign anything, it helps to have the answers written down in one place. The table below is the version we would take to a trial session.

How to think about the cost

Online programs are usually cheaper than an in-person free school, but the headline monthly fee is rarely the whole cost. Break it into parts before you compare two providers.

For a sense of scale, the only nationwide public figure we could find is for private facilities in general rather than online ones: a MEXT survey of 319 private organizations and facilities attended by children not going to school (published August 2015) found an average monthly fee of about 33,000 yen and an average joining fee of about 53,000 yen. That survey is now a decade old and covers mainly in-person free schools, so treat it as background, not a price guide. Online programs are often less than this, but fees vary so widely between providers that we do not publish a range.

Some municipalities help with the cost of learning outside school, and a few offer their own online or metaverse space free of charge to residents. There is no national scheme, and what exists differs completely from one city to the next. Ask your board of education what is available where you live. Our page on attendance recognition and costs goes into this further, and the free schools page covers in-person fees.

The first month, and the signs it is not working

What “working” looks like early on

Do not judge an online school in week one. A child who has been away from other children for months may spend the first weeks with the camera off, saying nothing. That is not failure. Three things worth doing early.

Signs it is not working, and when to change

Online learning suits many children and not all of them. Changing course is not giving up, and a program that helped in spring may stop helping in autumn. These are the patterns families most often describe to us.

If online learning is not the answer, there are others. Some children do better with the quieter in-person setting of an education support center or a small free school. Some families move toward home-based learning with no program at all for a while. And some children return to school part-time once the pressure lifts. Our page on school refusal in Japan explains why recovery is rarely a straight line.

Notes for foreign-national and international families

A few points come up often, and getting them wrong is expensive.

Two more things worth knowing. First, if your child holds Japanese nationality as well as another, the Japanese schooling obligation applies to them, so keeping local enrollment matters even if they learn entirely online. Second, if you are likely to move country within a year or two, ask any provider what happens to records and reports when you leave, and whether they can supply anything a school in your next country would accept. For families arriving in Japan rather than leaving, our guide to Japanese public elementary school for foreign children and our page on a returnee child struggling at a Japanese school cover the first year.

What this page does not cover

Frequently asked questions

Sources