January exams in Saitama and the Chiba list: real offers before February

In January, private junior highs in Saitama sit their own entrance exams. The Tokyo association's calendar article sets 1 February as the earliest ordinary selection, so a January paper in Saitama falls before that Tokyo week. Saitama prefecture does not call these practice papers. A pass is an offer at that school, with that school's enrolment deadline. Chiba prefecture publishes a parallel list for its own private junior highs. Neither list is a rehearsal score from a juku.

What Saitama published for April 2027

On 11 Sep 2026 the prefecture posted the Reiwa 9 (April 2027) outlines. For junior highs it counts 31 schools and 3,723 places, leaving out schools that did not set a number. The year before was 31 schools and 3,798 places. One school on the list, Kokusai Gakuin, has been closed since Reiwa 7. A separate one-page outline covers the prefecture's private secondary school, Kaichi Tokorozawa.

The table's symbols:

• ○ two subjects, ◆ four subjects, ○◆ the family chooses two or four, ※ something else (English, an aptitude-style paper, an interview, a presentation).
• Results: 掲 posted at the school, イ on the internet, 郵 by post.

A sample of first rounds, from that table. The full grid is two pages; ask the school before you travel.

School	Round on the prefecture table	Exam	Subjects	Results
栄東 (Eito, Saitama)	Ⅰ	10 Jan 2027	four	11 Jan, internet
開智 (Kaichi, Iwatsuki)	第1回	10 Jan 2027	four	10 Jan, internet
浦和学院	morning, four subjects; afternoon, two	10 Jan 2027	as named	same day, internet
浦和明の星 (girls)	第1回	14 Jan 2027	four	16 Jan, internet
立教新座 (boys)	第1回	25 Jan 2027	four	26 Jan, internet

栄東's table also has a round on 12 Jan labelled 東大特待, and 開智 has scholarship-selection rounds on 11 and 15 Jan. Those are the schools' own names for a round. The prefecture table does not say what a scholarship covers.

Some Saitama schools add a February date aimed at families who also sit in Tokyo. 開智 and 開智未来 list a round called 日本橋併願 on 4 Feb. 立教新座's second round is 3 Feb. 浦和明の星's second round is 4 Feb. Those are later than the January cluster.

Kaichi Tokorozawa's secondary-school outline lists a first general round on 10 Jan 2027, four subjects, results the same day online, plus earlier international rounds in the autumn. It shows 360 places, including a planned 100 who come up from its own elementary school.

The footnotes that apply to every row:

• The round's name is the school's own wording.
• The internal-progression number can change.
• Detail is confirmed with the school, not with the prefecture table alone.
• Some schools run a makeup exam (追試験) for a child who could not sit because of influenza or a transport shutdown. Whether your school does, and how you apply, is a question for that school.

What Chiba published the same week

Chiba's 11 Sep 2026 notice covers private elementary, junior high, secondary and high schools. For junior highs it counts 24 schools and 3,665 external places, 20 more than the year before. The notice says the school-by-school PDF lists, for each school, the gender, the number of places, the application window, the exam day, the result day, the enrolment deadlines (including a deposit deadline and a final deadline), the subjects, and whether there is an interview.

The notice's own warning:

日程等が変更される場合がありますので、志願者は各校へ確認してください。

The HTML page does not itself list a junior high's January day. Those days are in the PDF (r9tyuugaku.pdf on that page). High-school dates on the same notice, such as a cluster from 17 to 20 January, are high-school dates. Do not copy them onto a junior-high plan.

What it costs

Saitama's table has no exam fee and no tuition column. The fee is in each school's guidebook. Budget for the train to Saitama or Chiba, a possible overnight stay if the school forbids a late arrival, and the exam fee on top. A pass then brings that school's entrance-fee deadline, which can be the next day.

What goes wrong

Treating a January pass as a practice score is the expensive mistake. The school can require the entrance fee within a short window, and it can pass the place to the next child if you stay silent. If you do not want the place, decline by the method in that guidebook as soon as you know.

The other mistakes are smaller and still waste the day: reading ※ as "four subjects", missing a same-day result because you expected a letter, or assuming every school offers the makeup exam the footnote only says some schools offer.

What to do now

• If a January paper is part of your plan, choose it from the Saitama PDF or the Chiba PDF, then confirm the day, the fee and the enrolment deadline on that school's site.
• Put 10 Jan 2027 in the diary only for the schools whose row actually says 1/10. 立教新座's first round is 25 Jan.
• Decide before you go what you will do if the school says yes. A yes that you do not want still needs a decline.
• Ask, this month, whether that school runs a makeup exam, and what proof it wants if your child is ill on the day.

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