Kanagawa's April 2027 selection for foreign nationals who have been in Japan six years or less

Kanagawa's special recruitment for foreign residents (在県外国人等特別募集, zaiken gaikokujin-tō tokubetsu boshū) is a separate April 2027 track at a fixed list of public high schools. It is not the ordinary common selection, and it is not Tokyo's foreign-student quota. The guidelines do not promise a place to everyone who meets the residence rule.

Who the guidelines say can apply

You must already be eligible for the ordinary Kanagawa public high-school recruitment, and you must be a foreign national, including a person recognized as a refugee, whose total time in Japan after entry is six years or less on 1 February 2027:

外国の国籍を有する者（難民として認定された者を含む。）で、入国後の在留期間が通算で６年以内の者（令和９年２月１日現在）

A person who took Japanese nationality within those same six years is treated as a foreign national. The guidelines do not list visa categories beyond that sentence. They do not say that every foreign passport qualifies, and they do not waive the ordinary rules on age, junior-high completion, and a Kanagawa address.

The schools in the guidelines are:

Area	Schools
Yokohama and the coast	Prefectural Tsurumi Sogo, Yokohama Seiryo, Isogo Technical, Shin-ei; Yokohama municipal Minato Sogo and Yokohama Commercial (international course); Yokohama Sogo part-time, session II
Kawasaki	Prefectural Kawasaki and Daishi; Kawasaki municipal Kawasaki, part-time daytime ordinary
North and central	Prefectural Hashimoto, Sagamihara Yaei, Isehara, Zama Sogo, Aikawa; part-time Yokohama Meiho and Sagami Mukoyokan (morning and afternoon sessions)
Shonan	Prefectural Takahama, Fujisawa Sogo, Yamato Minami

Isogo Technical lets you name a second industrial department. Meiho and Sagami Mukoyokan let you name the other session as a second choice. You apply to one school. You cannot at the same time apply to any other recruitment, including the ordinary common selection:

在県外国人等特別募集に志願した者は、それ以外の募集に同時に志願することは認めない。

You also cannot be an applicant to a full-time public high school in another prefecture. That bar does not apply to the part-time daytime and multi-session schools on this list. Someone already enrolled at a high school cannot apply.

What to show, and by when

Before you register, the school checks the papers. From Wed 6 Jan through Fri 15 Jan 2027, on weekdays when the school is open, 9:00–noon and 13:00–16:00, you show the intended school either:

• a document that you are a foreign national, or that you have been recognized as a refugee, plus a document that your time in Japan since entry totals six years or less on 1 February 2027, or
• the six-year document plus a document that you acquired Japanese nationality within those six years.

The principal then records the check in the internet application system. The application window matches the ordinary common selection: register from Mon 25 Jan 2027, 9:00, to Fri 29 Jan, noon, and the junior-high principal approves through Mon 1 Feb, noon. One change of school is allowed from Thu 4 Feb, 0:00, to Mon 8 Feb, noon, with the principal's approval through Tue 9 Feb, noon. If you change into this special recruitment, you show the same proof to the new school before you register the change.

The exam is one day, Tue 16 Feb 2027, at the high school. It is Japanese, mathematics and English, 50 minutes each, English with listening, then an interview from 13:20. A part-time daytime or multi-session school may replace the exam with a 50-minute essay for a candidate who is 18 or older on 1 April 2027; the interview still follows. There is no second recruitment:

二次募集は実施しない。

Results are on the application system at 9:00 on Fri 26 Feb 2027. The offer and the enrollment steps follow the ordinary rules: pay the enrollment fee and file the pledge by the date the school sets, or the school may cancel the offer.

The principal selects from the report, the exam (including a make-up), and the interview, using criteria the school publishes in advance. The parent guide's table gives each school's mix. Several schools on this list weight the three-subject exam more heavily than the interview; the points are not the same school to school. Read the row before you choose.

What it costs

This section of the guidelines does not print a separate fee. The application uses the same internet system as the ordinary common selection, so the exam fee is the one that system's school charges for that course. Budget the ordinary public fees, and ask the school office for the figure on its course. Tuition support is a separate application after you enrol. This selection's guidelines do not say that sitting this exam changes who qualifies for that support.

What a foreign family should expect

The six-year count is total time since entry, as of 1 February 2027, not "six years at this address" and not the date on the newest residence card by itself. Bring whatever the school asks for to prove the count. The guidelines name the fact to prove; they do not name a single form.

The exam is three subjects, not five, and every school on the list interviews. A child who has been in Japan longer than six years on 1 February 2027 is outside this track and uses the ordinary common selection, if the ordinary rules fit. A child who wants both this track and an ordinary public school cannot file both. The one change of school, in the first week of February, is the moment to switch, and only if the new school accepts the eligibility papers.

Disability adjustments and the long-absence procedure follow the ordinary guidelines. The guidelines do not add a Japanese-language dictionary or a translated paper to this exam.

What to do now

1. Count time in Japan through 1 February 2027. If it is over six years, use the ordinary selection instead of this one.
2. Pick one school from the list and visit it between 6 and 15 January 2027 with the nationality paper and the residence-period paper.
3. Register online from 25 January and pay the exam fee before the principal's approval deadline at noon on 1 February.
4. Prepare a three-subject exam and an interview. Read that school's published mix of exam points and interview points.
5. Do not file an ordinary public application in the same season. If the ordinary school becomes the one you want, use the February change window and meet that school's own rules.