Part-time high school, correspondence, and the high-school equivalency exam

A student who does not want, or cannot manage, a daytime full-time high school still has a route to a diploma, and a separate route to university entrance without a diploma. Tokyo's Board of Education says the diploma is the same whether the student graduates from a full-time course, a part-time course (定時制, teijisei), or a correspondence course (通信制, tsūshinsei). The High School Equivalency Exam (高等学校卒業程度認定試験, kōtō gakkō sotsugyō teido nintei shiken, often called 高卒認定, kōsotsu nintei) does not enrol anyone. It is a ministry exam.

Part-time metropolitan high schools

Part-time (定時制) means classes outside the ordinary daytime week: evening, and at some schools morning or afternoon as well. For April 2027 the board's guide asks for an address or a workplace in Tokyo, kept after entry. As of 1 April 2025 the board counted six day-and-night credit schools, where three years is possible, and seven challenge schools. Challenge schools are integrated and credit-based, in morning, afternoon, and night sessions, aimed mainly at students with a long earlier absence or who left a high school part-way. Read that school's own page before you choose a session.

Tuition is 32,400 yen a year on a year-based part-time course, or 1,740 yen per credit. The admission fee is 2,100 yen. The exam fee is 950 yen. Tuition support is a separate application. Trip savings and lunch, where the school serves it, are extra.

The first-round exam is Sunday 21 February 2027, gathering at 8:30. The school sets at least three of the five subjects and an interview. Results are online at 8:30 on Monday 1 March, and on the noticeboard at 16:00. Enrolment is 16:00–20:00 that day and the next. A night, year-based applicant cannot use the February school-change window.

Empty seats go to a late March second round. Schools that split their places hold the early split in February and the late split on 4 and 9 March, in person. A student who already passed an earlier public round cannot join the part-time second round.

	Part-time second round, April 2027
Apply, in person	Thu 25 Mar 2027, 15:00–19:00
Exam	Fri 26 Mar 2027, at the time the school sets
Results	Mon 29 Mar 2027, 8:30 online, 15:00 on the noticeboard
Enrolment	29 Mar, 15:00–19:00, and 30 Mar, 15:00–19:00

Correspondence at three metropolitan schools

The board's guide names three metropolitan correspondence courses: Hitotsubashi (一橋), Shinjuku Yamabuki (新宿山吹), and Sunagawa (砂川). Study is mainly at home, for three years or more. A credit needs all three of these: the written assignments (レポート) submitted and passed, the required interview days (スクーリング, schooling), and the credit exams in both semesters.

For 30 credits the guide says the school sends about 82 to 86 assignments and returns them until they pass. Schooling is about 20 to 24 days a year, in principle on Saturdays. A web-learning course can cut that to about five days, using broadcast lessons and the school's video. The guide says Shinjuku Yamabuki has run that fully since fiscal 2023, and that Hitotsubashi and Sunagawa were scheduled to start in fiscal 2024. Ask which pattern the subject uses now.

The fee is 336 yen per credit, plus a 500 yen admission fee. Thirty credits is a little over 10,000 yen before any support. Report postage can go as fourth-class mail.

The early selection (前期選抜) is only for the equivalent of the first year. Later-round dates are announced separately. Applying to the early round means you cannot also sit the February full-time first round.

	Correspondence, early round, April 2027
Type the application	Fri 18 Dec 2026 – Thu 4 Feb 2027, 17:00
Papers must arrive	Fri 29 Jan – Thu 4 Feb 2027
Exam	Mon 22 Feb 2027
Results	Mon 1 Mar 2027

A private correspondence school that teaches online

N High School, S High School, and R High School (N高等学校・S高等学校・R高等学校), of the Kadokawa Dwango school corporation, describe themselves as correspondence schools that study online. A set number of schooling days is still required. The homepage says the three schools differ only in the once-every-three-years main-campus schooling venue, and that fees and study are the same. It prints no yen figure, and the tuition page did not load. Use the guidebook.

Courses are a net course with no timetable, a three- or five-day course, and a one-day course, on a physical campus or online. Students who want a physical campus on those commute courses have a document screen and an entrance exam. The junior high fills in the school's form. When the homepage was read, April 2027 applications were open. The deadline is the one in the guidebook.

The equivalency exam, if you are not finishing a diploma

The Ministry of Education's exam certifies senior-high level for university entrance, and for employment tests and licences that say they treat a pass as equivalent to graduation. You may sit it while enrolled at a high school. You may not sit it if you already hold university-entrance eligibility, including a high-school diploma or a previous pass.

You must turn 16 by the end of that fiscal year. Apply by registered mail at a post office, inside the window. A late envelope, an old form, or a letterbox posting is refused. Passed subjects and certified high-school credits can be exempted, but at least one subject has to be sat and passed. If the school can no longer issue the credit certificate, the exemption cannot be requested.

The dates below are the Reiwa 8 schedule. The August 2026 sitting has passed. The next year's dates are not on this schedule.

	Reiwa 8, second sitting
Guide available	Tue 21 July 2026
Application, postmark	Tue 21 July – Fri 11 September 2026
Exam	Sat 7 and Sun 8 November 2026
Results posted	Tue 8 December 2026

On 9 October 2026 that window had closed. The November exam is open only to an envelope postmarked by 11 September.

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