Frequently Asked Questions

As a high school graduation qualification, it is the same.

You can go to an engineering university even without attending a technical high school. Many graduates of technical or commercial high schools get a job (as a full-time employee) after graduating. Those who go on to university are more often from general-course (普通科) high schools.

With only a junior high school diploma, the companies that will hire you (as a full-time employee) are limited and very few. Most jobs require at least a high school diploma.

• Choose a high school by considering things like: "Can I study something useful for my future?", "Does it match my academic ability?", and "Is there a support system for Japanese language and so on?"
• Listening to older students (seniors) and using their experience as a reference is also a good idea.
• Attend information sessions and visit the high schools you might apply to.
• After submitting your application, you sometimes have only a short time to decide where to change your application to, so choose about three high schools in advance. For details, see pages 3–4 of the guidebook (here).

• Look at the "main destinations after graduation" (主な進学先) in commercially sold entrance-exam guidebooks or on each high school's website, and use which universities that school's graduates entered as a reference. Generally, high schools with a high report-card score (内申点) and deviation score (偏差値) have a higher proportion of students going on to university.

* The report-card score (内申点) is the total of your junior high school grades: 2nd year, 5 points × 9 subjects, plus 3rd year, 10 points × 9 subjects. The maximum total is 135 points.

* The deviation score (偏差値) is calculated by averaging the results of everyone taking the exam and setting the score of the person in the middle of the ranking to 50. It differs from school to school; the highest schools are in the 70s.

• The report-card score (内申点) gives you a rough idea of which high schools you can aim for. People whose report-card score is insufficient need to score well on the academic exam and the interview.
• At all high schools in the Special Recruitment for Foreign Residents (在県外国人等特別募集), junior high school grades (the grades on the report / 調査書) are not used to decide pass or fail.
• There are also "Creative Schools" (クリエイティブスクール) that do not conduct an academic exam.
• Also think in advance about the secondary recruitment (二次募集) and taking the exam for part-time high schools.

After submitting your application, look at the "application status" (志願状況) on the Kanagawa Prefectural Board of Education website or announced in the newspaper, check the "recruitment numbers" (募集人数) and "number of applicants" (志願人数), and decide whether it is better to change your application based on the balance with your own ability. When deciding, consult closely with your guardian, supporters, and junior high school teacher. There is not much time between the newspaper announcement and the deadline for the change procedure. To use the application change effectively, you need to be prepared even before you submit your application.

If you change your application, you need to tell your junior high school teacher. If there is any possibility you will change, be sure to tell your homeroom teacher in advance, for example during the three-way conference (三者面談). If you graduated from a junior high school overseas, please go to the Kanagawa Prefectural Board of Education to change your application.

• Consider applying to a private high school as well when there is a public high school you really want to attend but passing is difficult. However, if you pass the private high school but fail the public high school, you must attend the private high school you passed. Also, private high schools cost money. Even if tuition is reduced by the school-support subsidy (就学支援金), other costs still apply, so please be careful.
• Even without applying to a private school, you can take the secondary recruitment of public high schools or the exam for part-time high schools. Before deciding whether to apply to both, please consult closely with your guardian.

First, check whether you meet the application eligibility. For details, see page 2 of the guidebook (here). If you still don't know, please contact the Kanagawa Prefectural Board of Education.

The Returnee Special Recruitment is for people who lived overseas together with a parent while the parent was living abroad for reasons such as work. So if a child studied at an overseas school alone, it is treated as study abroad and does not qualify for the returnee recruitment. However, if there were circumstances that required the child to go overseas alone, please consult the Kanagawa Prefectural Board of Education.

You need the "entry/exit record" (出入国記録) issued by Japan's Ministry of Justice (法務省). You can apply from the Ministry of Justice website and have it mailed to you. However, it takes more than a month, so please apply early.

If you have completed the equivalent of the 1st year of high school overseas, transferring into a Japanese high school is possible, but the schools you can transfer into and the timing of transfer are fixed. Also, people with insufficient Japanese may not be able to receive Japanese-language support, or may struggle with the 1st-year curriculum, so please consult the "Transfer/Re-enrollment Information Center" (転編入学情報センター).

There are many community learning classrooms (地域学習教室) for people who find it hard to study alone or hard to study at a cram school (塾). Many of them are free. Please see the "list of learning classrooms" on the Kanagawa International Foundation (KIF) website for reference.

Things like having done club activities in junior high and "participating in the prefectural tournament" or "receiving an award" do not immediately become an advantage in the interview. In the interview, what matters is concretely conveying how you worked hard in your club activities.

Among Kanagawa's public high schools, there is no school that conducts all of its classes in English. However, some schools do put effort into English-language classes.