Kindergarten fees and the free-fee cap: what ¥25,700 covers, and what you still pay

The free preschool system (幼児教育・保育の無償化, yoji kyoiku hoiku no mushoka) leaves some lines on a kindergarten bill in place. Which lines disappear depends on whether the kindergarten has joined the national child-and-childcare system.

Two kinds of kindergarten bill

A kindergarten on the new system (新制度幼稚園, shinseido yochien) receives the facility-type benefit (施設型給付, shisetsugata kyufu). With the category-1 education certificate (教育・保育給付第１号), the Children and Families Agency's FAQ says the whole user charge is free.

Off that benefit, the free amount stops at the category-1 maximum:

月額2.57万円を上限として無償となります。

That is ¥25,700 a month. The same FAQ, in a worked proration, writes the figure as 25,700円.

施設型給付を受けない幼稚園の利用料が月額2.57万円より高い場合、その差額は利用者の自己負担になります。

The FAQ's examples: ¥20,000 a month is free in full, and the unused ¥5,700 cannot move onto another service. ¥30,000 a month leaves ¥4,300 for the family.

For a kindergarten the free period starts on the third birthday. The FAQ cites the rule that age is counted from the day before. Daycare waits until the next April if the birthday falls mid-year. Extended care at a kindergarten (預かり保育, azukari hoiku) also waits until that April, unless the household pays no resident tax.

What sits inside the ¥25,700

The cap is a monthly ceiling on the kindergarten's education fee, not a purse of ¥25,700.

• Monthly childcare fee (保育料).
• The entrance fee (入園料) in the first year, including a fee collected before April. Divide it by the months enrolled that year, drop the fraction of a yen each month, and add the slice to that month's fee. The sum is free only up to ¥25,700. A later year's entrance payment is split the same way. An entrance fee for a class of children who are not yet 3 is outside the cap. A uniform or a PTA due bundled into the entrance fee is outside it too.

Extended care, meals, and the rest of the bill

Extended care is a second ceiling, and only if the ward has certified that childcare is needed (保育の必要性). The FAQ sets it at ¥11,300 a month for ages 3–5: the days used times ¥450, compared with what you actually paid, and the smaller one is paid, never above ¥11,300. A household that pays no resident tax, for a child in the months from the third birthday until the first 31 March, has a higher extended-care ceiling of ¥16,300. The daily rate stays ¥450.

Meals are separate. On the facility benefit, the side dish (副食費) is waived for a household the FAQ puts under about ¥3.6 million a year, and for a third child at any income. Older siblings count through the end of grade 3 on an education certificate, and through the preschool years on a childcare certificate. Staple food is still billed. Licensed-daycare extended hours, and a second claim on top of a facility-benefit place, sit outside this payment.

What Tokyo private kindergartens actually charged

On 3 February 2025 Tokyo published first-year payments for 4-year-olds at private kindergartens that were not taking the facility benefit in fiscal 2025. Closed schools and schools that had stopped recruiting were left out. 465 schools replied.

Item	Average, fiscal 2025	Change
First-year total	¥564,189	+¥15,766 (2.9%)
Childcare fee (annual)	¥399,464	monthly average ¥33,289
Entrance fee	¥111,366	+¥448
Facility fee	¥18,188	+¥181
Other annual charges	¥35,172	+¥1,766
Exam fee (listed apart from the total)	¥5,924	+¥311

The 23-ward average total was ¥589,642, against ¥505,703 in Tokyo's cities and towns. 175 of the 465 schools raised the total, 15 lowered it, and 275 left it unchanged.

If you live in Setagaya

Setagaya adds its own subsidy for a private kindergarten that has not joined the new system, including a national-university kindergarten. Schools already on the new system are outside this page. You and the child need a Setagaya resident record and must commute from it. Apply through the kindergarten after the place is confirmed. The ward pays only up to what you actually paid.

From October 2026 the ceilings are:

What you paid	Ceiling	Who
Entrance fee	¥120,000 once, in the entry year	No income test. A previous city's entrance subsidy blocks it. April entrants still qualify if the resident record exists on 30 April.
Childcare fee	¥35,000 a month	From the third birthday through age 5. Livelihood protection, income around ¥2.7 million or less, multi-child, and single-parent households can get an add-on. The page does not print those amounts.
Extended care	¥12,300 a month	Needs the childcare-need certificate. A child born on or after 2 April 2023 qualifies only in a non-taxable household.
Side dish	¥5,100 a month	Livelihood protection, non-taxable, income under about ¥3.6 million, or a third child (siblings through grade 3).
Other annual charges in the school rules	¥3,000 a month	Livelihood protection and non-taxable households.

A national-university kindergarten is ¥8,700 a month here, the same as the FAQ's 月額0.87万円. A national-university special-support kindergarten department is ¥400 a month.

Proxy receipt (代理受領) means the ward pays the school up to ¥35,000 from October 2026 and the school bills the excess. An add-on above ¥35,000 still returns to you. Reimbursement (償還払い) pays the April–August fee around late October 2026 and September–March around late March 2027. Extended care for April–August comes around late November 2026, and September–March around late July 2027.

If you were not on Setagaya's register on 1 January 2025 or 1 January 2026, send a tax certificate, or, for a year abroad, proof of all income in Japan and abroad (the page's example is an employer salary statement). A My Number consent form, posted to 世田谷区世田谷4-22-33, lets the ward ask the previous city. The subsidy line is 03-6453-4990 on weekdays.

What goes wrong

• Using a Setagaya ceiling in another ward. The ¥35,000 and ¥12,300 figures are Setagaya's page.

What to do now

1. Families entering in April 2027 are sent to a separate Setagaya page. Read it before you use this one for next spring.