Tokyo public combined junior highs for April 2027: who may apply, and the exam days

Tokyo's public combined junior-and-senior highs (都立中高一貫校) and metropolitan junior highs admit children who are not already in a junior high. The board's 11 June 2026 notice sets the April 2027 calendar. Each school was still due to publish its own guidebook by about September 2026. Place counts were due in October 2026 and are not in this notice.

Exam days

Track	Apply	Exam	Results
Returnee and foreign-resident (海外帰国・在京外国人生徒枠)	in person on Fri 8 Jan and Tue 12 Jan 2027	Mon 25 Jan 2027	Fri 29 Jan 2027
Special track (特別枠)	online Thu 17 Dec 2026 – Mon 18 Jan 2027, 17:00; papers Fri 8 Jan – Mon 18 Jan 2027	Mon 1 Feb 2027	Tue 2 Feb 2027
General track (一般枠)	same online and paper window as the special track	Wed 3 Feb 2027	Tue 9 Feb 2027

Online entry plus tracked mail, held at the post office the school names, is how the special and general tracks take papers. The returnee and foreign-resident track is brought to the counter. If you apply to that track and also to a general or special track at the same school, the notice says those other papers are accepted on the returnee days, not on the later window.

A child who misses the general exam because of influenza or another school infection, and who phones the school by 17:00 on the exam day and is confirmed by the principal, can sit a later exam on Friday 12 February 2027. Applications for that later exam are 4 and 5 February. Results are 16 February. A child who misses the day for an unavoidable admission to hospital, proved by a third party, is in the same later exam.

Who the general and special tracks are for

You are not already enrolled in a junior high, and one of these is true:

• You are due to finish a Japanese elementary school in March 2027.
• By 31 March 2027 you will have finished, in Japan, a foreign-school course equivalent to six years of compulsory education, and you were born from 2 April 2014 through 1 April 2015 and you are a foreign national.
• You are due to finish, in March 2027, a school abroad that the Ministry of Education has certified as equivalent to elementary school (a Japanese school abroad, 日本人学校).
• By 31 March 2027 you will have finished a local school abroad (現地校) at the equivalent of six years, and you were born in that same 2 April 2014 – 1 April 2015 range.

You also need to live in Tokyo with a parent and to be able to keep commuting from Tokyo, or to be in one of the notice's listed exceptions (a Tokyo elementary school plus a Tokyo address, a planned move, and the disaster cases the notice names). Some of those exceptions need an extra statement from the elementary principal.

The returnee and foreign-resident track

Japanese nationals need a continuous two years abroad with a parent (one parent is enough when the parents are the guardians), and either are still abroad or, on the entry date, are within two years of the end of that stay. A return on or after 1 March 2025 is treated as inside that two years for this April 2027 entry. You also need a Tokyo address with a parent and commuting from Tokyo, or the notice's planned-move exception.

Foreign nationals are, as a rule, within two years of entering Japan on the entry date. An entry on or after 1 March 2025 is treated as inside that two years. The other routes on this track are finishing a foreign school in Japan, or a local school abroad, by 31 March 2027, with the same birth range as above.

The notice does not say you will be admitted. Eligibility can also be decided by the board's screening. Verify with the school and the Tokyo Board of Education.