1. International Course and the Founder, Fr. Dominic Shigeru Tagawa
Fr. Dominic Shigeru Tagawa, the founder of Gyosei International School, established Gyosei International High School in 1979 with the goal of “nurturing internationally minded people” and began accepting children of Japanese business people overseas, whose education after returning home had become a social problem.
At that time, there were only four high schools in Japan that were established primarily for the purpose of accepting returnee children.
These were Gakugei University Senior High School Oizumi, ICU International Senior High School, Doshisha International Senior High School, and Gyosei International Senior High School.
Several years prior to the opening of Gyosei International High School, Fr. Tagawa had rented a room at the Hotel Okura to hold a forum on international education in Japan with university professors, business people, and LDP representatives.
At that time, Japanese companies were beginning to expand their operations overseas, and the number of foreigners interacting with foreign countries, the number of foreigners seen on the streets in Japan, and the number of foreigners living in Japan were far fewer than they are today.
At a time when studying abroad was rare, Fr. Tagawa went to Switzerland via Marseille, France, on a boat trip, completed his theology studies at Université Fribourg in Switzerland, and was ordained as a priest.
After that, based on his experiences of studying in France and staying in the U.S., his experiences as a priest in conferences and training in English and French, which sometimes lasted up to a month, and requests from various circles at forums, he deeply grasped the urgent need to “nurture internationally minded people” and established Gyosei International High School, a boarding school for boys in the forest of Yana, Kisarazu City.
Since then, the wave of returnee education has rapidly gained momentum as about 10 Japanese high schools overseas have been established in major cities around the world.
Our school also established Gyosei International School U.K. in Milton Keynes, England.
Also, even inside Japan, the number of schools actively accepting returnee students has increased significantly, and the problem of accepting returnee students, which had been a social issue, has been settled.
In 1989, 10 years after the establishment of Gyosei International High School, the school shifted its goal of “nurturing internationally minded people” from merely accepting returnees to actively nurturing human resources with foreign language skills and international sensibilities comparable to those of returnees.
In April 1989, we started an immersion program in Kisarazu, where main subjects were taught in English.
It was the first experience for the Japanese senior high schools accredited by the Japanese Ministry of Education.
Not only did we teach main subjects in English but also we respected other related subjects such as Comparative Culture, Religious Studies, Foreign Literature and French.
The name of this course was “Anglo-American Course”.
It was inherited from the “Anglo-American Course,” a program for the students applying for universities in the U.K. , at Gyosei International School in England.
The “Anglo-American Course” was later renamed the “International Course” and opened not only in the senior high school, but also in the junior high school and eventually the primary school division.
2. Current International Course at Our School
The International Course at our primary school began as an immersion course and has continued to evolve over the years.
This is due to the increase in the number of foreigners permanently residing in Japan, which has resulted in an increase in the number of children whose native language is English, and the increase in international marriages, which has resulted in an increase in the number of children in which one of the parents is a native speaker of English.
In addition, the number of returnee children has also increased due to an increase in the number of companies stationing their staff abroad and parents studying abroad.
In the stream of this background, our international course has become not an immersion course, but rather an “international school type” course in which English is the language of daily life.
Although the number of international schools in Japan is increasing, the number is not in proportion to the increasing number of foreigners residing in Japan, and the tuition fees of international schools, which are not supported by the national or prefectural governments, are a significant burden for foreign residents.
Our school hopes to provide such children of foreign residents with the opportunity for primary education in English, as well as the opportunity for these children to learn Japanese language and Japanese way of thinking in order to live smoothly in Japanese society in the future.
The International Course is also considered to be a good environment for children from non-English speaking families to develop their English language skills.
However, children who wish to enroll or transfer must be able to keep up with school life and classes in English.
3. Contents and Features of the “International Course”
The main features of the International Course are as follows:
- Homeroom teachers are currently from Sri Lanka, Canada, Jamaica, and the Philippines, and the majority of classes and classroom activities are conducted in English.
- The curriculum is based on the subjects and number of classes specified in the Japanese Courses of Study for Elementary Education. In addition, there are 6 hours of English, 1 hour of religion, and 2 hours of French per week.
- The textbooks used in the International Course are the same as those used in public elementary schools in the United States.
Note: The textbooks for the International Course at our junior high school are the same as those used in South Wales, Australia, and the textbooks for the high school are the same as those used in the United States. - In our International Course, both Japanese and non-Japanese students are expected to be bilingual in English and Japanese.
- Communication between the homeroom teachers and parents is conducted with a communication app. with a translation function.
- After graduation from primary school, students may enter the International Course at the junior and senior high school division of our school, which will enable them to enter universities overseas or undergraduate schools of Japanese universities for international studies that require TOEFL and SAT. In addition, students may also join the Advanced Course or John’s School in our junior-senior high school and prepare to apply for different faculties in other fields of study