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Tokyo Metropolitan Kokusai High School IB Course — Fees, Places, and University Eligibility, Checked at the Source

Tokyo, Japan

A public school offering the IB Diploma at roughly a thirtieth of ASIJ's first-year cost. The admissions quota has conflicting figures across sources — we've reported both rather than picking one.

Researched by William Prep from published sources. Not yet verified by the school. — Last reviewed by William Prep: 2026-09-23

Kokusai High School is a Tokyo Metropolitan public high school (an Article 1 school) that separately admits a small IB course alongside its roughly 700-student main school. Because it is Article 1, graduating automatically confers domestic university eligibility — regardless of whether a student takes the IB course. Completing the IB Diploma opens an additional route for overseas applications.

At a Glance

Legal Status	Article 1 (Tokyo Metropolitan public school)as of: 2026-09-23
Tuition (standard rate)	¥118,800 / year (not independently confirmed)2026-27
IB Course Places	25 (though one source puts the 2026 intake at 20) (not independently confirmed)2026-27
Intake	April and Septemberas of: 2026-09-23

Cheap Tuition Is Not the Same Thing as a Cheap Total

Standard tuition for a Tokyo Metropolitan public high school is ¥118,800 a year — roughly a thirtieth of ASIJ's real first-year cost (≈¥5.95M). But the school's own IB course Q&A separately states that materials and activity-fund contributions apply, and that IB Diploma-related costs are charged on top of that, without publishing either figure. So the tuition figure is genuinely low; the total is not necessarily "public-school cheap" once those unpublished costs are added.

Because two of the three fee components here have no published amount, we've deliberately not calculated a first-year total — ask the school directly for current figures.

The "25 Places" Figure Doesn't Fully Agree Across Sources

The IB course admissions quota has long been cited as 25 places across multiple sources. But one source describing the 2026 academic year specifically states 15 places for Japanese nationals plus 5 for foreign nationals — 20 total. We can't resolve which figure is correct, or whether it varies by year, without reading the Tokyo Board of Education's own selection-guideline document directly — so both figures are reported here rather than one being silently chosen.

Admission runs twice a year — April and September entry — and the school's own Q&A states applicants "cannot sit for both." September entrants appear to face specific eligibility conditions around birth date and returnee/foreign-national status, based on search-result reporting of an official announcement; this wasn't confirmed against the Board of Education's own document directly.

University Entrance Eligibility in Japan

School-accreditation route	Yes
Student-qualification route (IB, etc.)	Yes

Because this is an Article 1 school, domestic university eligibility is automatic regardless of the IB course — it isn't contingent on completing the diploma. The IB Diploma credential matters separately for overseas applications and for the small number of Japanese universities with IB-score-based admissions tracks. What happens to a student who doesn't complete the full diploma wasn't confirmed this session.

Fees & Estimated First-Year Cost

academic year: 2026-27

Tuition (standard Tokyo Metropolitan public rate)	¥118,800not publicly confirmed
Materials & activity contributions (varies by year)	not publicly confirmedThe school's own IB course Q&A states these additional costs apply, without publishing a specific amount.
IB Diploma assessment fees (IB course only)	not publicly confirmedExplicitly stated as an additional, separate cost for IB course students. No published amount.

What Makes This School Distinctive

A public school offering a genuine route to the IB Diploma

The IB Diploma Programme, offered at standard Tokyo Metropolitan public school tuition

Annual tuition of ¥118,800, against several million yen a year at private IB schools offering the same programme.

A realistic option for families for whom private international school fees are simply out of reach.

University Pathways

Matriculation data (where students actually enrolled) was not confirmed this session. The legacy directory entry was too vague to carry forward.

University matriculation outcomes for the IB course — destinations, cohort size, domestic vs. overseas split — were not confirmed this session.

Admissions

Cycle	4月入学・9月入学の年2回（受検資格が異なる）
Places available	募集人員25名（ただし2026年度は日本人生徒15名＋外国籍生徒5名の計20名という情報あり — 要確認） (not independently confirmed)academic year: 2026-27The admissions quota has commonly been cited as 25 places, but one source specifically describes the 2026 academic year (令和8年度) as 15 Japanese-national places + 5 foreign-national places = 20 total. These figures don't agree, and the discrepancy is unresolved pending a direct read of the Tokyo Board of Education's own selection-guideline PDF.
Intake points	4月入学生／9月入学生（併願不可）
English requirement	選考の一部として英語力が問われる（詳細未確認） not publicly confirmed

What Japanese Families Should Know

Who Might Find This School a Good Fit

Might suit — Families wanting the IB Diploma without private-school-level fees

Might not suit — Families who need cost predictability — materials and IB-related fees are unpublished and hard to budget for in advance

Might suit — Students comfortable navigating daily school life in Japanese, wanting English specifically for IB subjects

Might not suit — Students who want the whole school experience in English (a fully English-medium school like ASIJ would fit better)

William Prep’s own interpretation.

William Prep’s Analysis

What stood out most in researching this school is that "cheap tuition" and "an unpredictable total" are both true at once — the transparency of a public school's tuition rate sits alongside the genuine opacity of the IB course's specific costs, and it wouldn't be fair to emphasise one without the other. The admissions-quota discrepancy across sources is also a good demonstration that even a school as well-known as this one shouldn't have its numbers stated with more confidence than the primary sources actually support.

Questions to Ask the School

1.What are the actual current-year figures for materials fees, activity-fund contributions, and IB Diploma-related costs?
Why this matters: The school's own Q&A confirms these costs exist but doesn't publish amounts.
2.Is the 2026 (令和8年度) IB course admissions quota 25 total, or 20 (15 Japanese-national + 5 foreign-national)?
Why this matters: Sources disagree on this figure.
3.If a student doesn't complete the full IB Diploma, how does that affect their graduation status or domestic university application eligibility?
Why this matters: As an Article 1 school this likely doesn't affect graduation itself, but we couldn't confirm the school's own official position on this this session.

Sources & Verification

Q&A — 国際バカロレアコース — 東京都立国際高等学校primary source · as of: 2026-09-23Confirms: April and September entrants sit mutually exclusive entrance exams; IB-course tuition matches regular students plus materials/activity contributions; diploma-related costs are separate and additional.
東京都立国際高等学校国際バカロレアコース入学者選抜実施要綱 — 東京都教育委員会official source · as of: 2026-09-23Seen via search snippet, not a direct PDF fetch this session — treat admissions-quota figures sourced here as reported pending a direct read of the PDF.
Search synthesis on 2026年度 IB course admission quota — Multiple (incl. resemom.jp reporting on 都教育委員会 announcements)third-party source · as of: 2026-09-23募集人員 is documented elsewhere (incl. William Prep's own earlier research) as 25名 total; this source states 2026年度 (令和8年度) is split 15 Japanese + 5 foreign = 20 total — a real discrepancy against the commonly-cited 25, not yet resolved against a primary PDF. Recorded as a conflict, not silently picked.
Search synthesis on September-intake eligibility criteria — Multiple (search aggregation quoting 都教育委員会 announcement language)third-party source · as of: 2026-09-23Birth-date cutoff, 帰国生徒 residency requirements — reads as a close paraphrase of an official announcement but was not fetched directly from 都教委 or the school this session.
大学入学資格について — 文部科学省 (MEXT)official source · as of: 2026-09-23Sets out the routes to 大学入学資格: MEXT-designated schools; graduates of 12-year programmes at institutions accredited by WASC, CIS, ACSI, NEASC, Cognia or COBIS; holders of the IB Diploma, Abitur, Baccalauréat, GCE A-Level, International A-Level or European Baccalaureate; 高等学校卒業程度認定試験 (age-18 gated); and individual university review at 18+.
About Tokyo International Schools Portal — Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Bureau of Industrial and Labor Affairsofficial source · as of: 2026-09-23Launched Oct 2025. Listing requires 各種学校 approval under Article 134 of the School Education Act, or one of WASC/CIS/ACSI/NEASC/Cognia/COBIS accreditation, plus the school's consent — so a school's absence from the portal is not itself informative about quality.

Last reviewed by William Prep: 2026-09-23

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