Private elementary fees: the national average, and what one Tokyo school charges after a yes

A yes from a private elementary school (私立小学校, shiritsu shōgakkō) starts a payment clock of a few days, and the public school the ward had reserved is a separate piece of paper you still have to clear. Two sources answer "what does it cost?": the ministry's national survey of what families actually spent, and one Tokyo school's own sheet for children entering in April 2027. They are not the same number. The survey is a national average for a year that has already ended. The school sheet is a bill, labelled as a plan.

What families spent, nationally

The Children's Learning Expenses Survey (子供の学習費調査, kodomo no gakushūhi chōsa) asks parents what they spent on school and outside school from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024. The first publication had calculation errors. The correction cut the private-elementary total from 1,828,112 yen to 1,741,516 yen per child, all grades averaged, and raised the public-elementary total to 366,599 yen. Private elementary pupils were about 1.3 percent of elementary pupils.

The overview, also replaced on 16 January 2026, says the most expensive single year in the whole survey was private elementary grade 1, about 2,166,000 yen. That is total spending. It includes the school bill, lunch and everything outside school, such as lessons and juku. It is not a Tokyo average. The survey does not publish one. It is not the fee a school will quote you for April 2027.

The school-cost slice alone, averaged across all private elementary grades, was 978,271 yen. Tuition inside that slice was 510,823 yen. Entrance-related costs averaged 62,402 yen, and the survey counts money paid to schools the child sat and then did not enter. A family who pays two deposits and walks away from one will see both in a statistic like that. Your own "after a yes" bill is whatever the school that said yes puts on the sheet.

One school after a yes: Nitobe Bunka Elementary

Nitobe Bunka Elementary (新渡戸文化小学校), 6-38-1 Honcho, Nakano, Tokyo, published guidelines for April 2027 entry. About 60 children, girls and boys together, including children coming up from the school's own kindergarten and returnees. The fee box is marked as fiscal 2026 planned amounts, and the school says they can change with conditions. Read them as this school's plan, dated on the sheet 19 June 2026.

The payment that keeps the offer is the entrance fee, 300,000 yen, by credit card or Pay-easy, inside the window below. Miss it and the acceptance is cancelled: 期日内に手続きがない場合は、入学許可が取り消しになりますのでご注意ください。 The entrance fee is not refunded, whatever the reason. After payment the school posts two copies of the acceptance letter (入学許可書). One copy goes to the board of education where you live.

Round	Results open	Pay by
1st general	Wednesday 4 November 2026, 09:00	Saturday 7 November 2026, 16:00
2nd general	Saturday 14 November 2026, 20:00	Tuesday 17 November 2026, 16:00
3rd	Saturday 12 December 2026, 20:00	Tuesday 15 December 2026, 16:00

Results are on the web. The school tells candidates who sat that day how to look them up. It does not mail a separate win letter before you pay.

Monthly, in the same planned box: tuition 50,000 yen, an education-enrichment fee 13,000 yen, a facilities fee 10,000 yen, and a supporters' association fee 5,000 yen, 78,000 yen a month. Lunch is 11,880 yen a month. In the first year an education-activity instalment, planned at 50,000 yen in April and 50,000 yen in May, covers an iPad, ICT costs and a saving for overnight trips. After entry everyone joins the on-site after-school programme and the supporters' association: after-school joining fee 100,000 yen, parents' association 3,000 yen, supporters' association joining fee 5,000 yen. A graduate-register system costs 10,000 yen at entry. A returnee child may be charged an extra 51,500 yen depending on the child's situation. A donation after entry is voluntary.

Entrance-fee reductions the sheet itself prints: 30 percent off the 300,000 yen for a child, grandchild or sibling of a graduate of the foundation, or a sibling of a current pupil. From the third sibling at schools the foundation runs, the entrance fee is waived, whether or not the older siblings are still enrolled.

Two more papers follow the payment. The school wants the municipality's pre-school health-check result, handed in on a date it sets. One acceptance letter goes to your board so the public seat can be released. Ask that desk which form it uses.

A sitting costs 30,000 yen, or 25,000 yen from the second if you enter more than once. Everyday conversation in Japanese, and a commute from the parents' home, are entry conditions.

What goes wrong

Treating 2,166,000 yen as Nitobe's invoice will not match the sheet, and treating Nitobe's 300,000 yen as the national entrance fee will not match the survey. Paying on the 8th of November for a first-round offer that closed at 16:00 on the 7th cancels the place, and the school has already said the entrance fee does not come back if you had paid. Forgetting the second copy of the acceptance letter leaves the ward holding a public seat for a child who is going elsewhere. A sibling discount you assumed, but that the sheet's family definitions do not cover, is a conversation to have before you pay the full 300,000. The planned amounts can move. The sheet says so.

What to do now

• Use the survey as scale only: nationally, private elementary spending in the corrected fiscal 2023 figures was about 1.74 million yen a year, and about 2.17 million in grade 1, total spending, not tuition alone.
• If you have a yes from Nitobe, pay 300,000 yen inside that round's window, by card or Pay-easy, and wait for the two acceptance letters.
• Take one letter to your municipal board, and file whatever else that board asks so the public school is released.
• Book the municipal pre-entry health check if you have not already, and hand the result in on the school's date.
• Phone the school on 03-3381-0124, weekdays 9:00–16:00, if a fee line on your offer does not match the planned box. The box is allowed to change.