Tokyo public high schools: tuition, the admission fee, and the grants that are not tuition

A metropolitan high school has a published price, and then a set of applications that can bring the tuition part of that price to zero. School trips, uniforms, and club costs sit outside tuition and need their own forms.

The price on the ordinance

The Tokyo Board of Education's tuition page, updated 21 April 2026, prints the amounts as of 1 April 2025.

Course	Tuition	Admission fee
Full-time high school, and the upper years of a combined school	118,800 yen a year	5,650 yen
Part-time, year-based	32,400 yen a year	2,100 yen
Part-time, by credit	1,740 yen × the credits taken	2,100 yen
Correspondence	336 yen × the credits taken	500 yen
Special-needs upper secondary	1,200 yen a year	see that school's notice

The 336 yen rate is the one the page applies to students who entered from fiscal 2014 onward, which includes an April 2027 entrant.

You pay the admission fee with the slip given out when results are posted. The deadline is five days from the day after results, or the next business day if that fifth day is a weekend or holiday. A family that cannot afford it can ask for a waiver or a half reduction at the school's administration office (経営企画室, keiei kikakushitsu). The board's high-school accounts desk is 03-5320-7862. Each school also sets its own trip savings, student-council fee, and, at part-time schools, lunch. Ask the school you are entering.

Tuition becomes zero only after a decision

The same page says that if the student applies for the national high-school tuition support (高等学校等就学支援金, shūgaku shienkin) and is approved, the tuition is free. It also says applicants who are not Japanese nationals have to meet residence-status conditions. The school has the list of documents. Filing the form, on paper or online, is a separate step from accepting the place. Until the approval exists, do not assume the 118,800 yen has vanished.

Two groups are still charged even where the support exists:

• someone who has already graduated from high school once
• someone whose time on the roll exceeds 36 months in a full-time course, the upper years of a combined school, or a special-needs upper school, or 48 months in part-time or correspondence. Leave, study abroad, and time off for medical treatment are not counted in that total.

Money for everything that is not tuition

The board runs a grant for textbook, materials, trip, and similar costs: 東京都国公立高等学校等奨学のための給付金 (shōgaku no tame no kyūfukin). It is paid to the parent as a flat yearly sum for the band the household is placed in. It does not reimburse every receipt. The page says the bands below, and it says the "income" figures are a model (one working parent, one high-school student, one junior-high student). A household above the model income can still fall in a band, because the real test is the local income-tax levy (所得割). A household that looks under the model can still miss, because the levy depends on dependants.

Band on the page	Full-time and part-time	Correspondence
Livelihood protection, the school-expense part (生業扶助)	32,300 yen	50,500 yen
No income-tax levy (非課税)	143,700 yen	50,500 yen
Levy under 105,500 yen (model about 2.7–3.8 million yen)	47,900 yen	16,830 yen
Levy under 182,500 yen (model about 3.8–4.9 million yen)	35,930 yen	12,630 yen

The two middle bands apply only when the student also qualifies for the new tuition-support system, or the new system for students studying again. From fiscal 2026 the board widened the grant to the 182,500 yen levy. A livelihood-protection household and a non-taxed household are their own rows.

For fiscal 2026 the ordinary window has closed. A household whose finances collapsed on or after 2 July 2026, and that now looks like the under-182,500 yen band, can still apply until the end of January 2027. Clean fiscal-2026 files were due a decision by 31 December 2026. The page says the fiscal 2027 instructions will be posted when they exist. An April 2027 entrant uses that later notice.

The student has to be eligible on 1 July, or on the day of entry if they enter later. A student on leave or abroad for the whole year is not paid. Papers go through the school's administration office or the board's online system. If the tuition-support file already has the My Number slip, you do not file that slip again.

The school pays some activity costs directly

A second scheme, 給付型奨学金 (kyūfugata shōgakukin), is not cash in the parent's account. The board's page, updated 30 April 2026, says Tokyo pays approved school costs instead of the parent, up to a cap, so the student can join the activities.

Household	Yearly cap
Livelihood protection, or no income-tax levy (model under about 2.7 million yen)	50,000 yen
Parents' combined levy under 182,500 yen (model from about 2.7 million to under about 4.9 million)	30,000 yen

The costs the page names include the school trip, off-campus study, mock exams, Eiken and Kanji Kentei fees, and vocational licence fees, each with the school's own ceiling. From the fiscal 2022 intake, a certified household at a metropolitan high school can also have the parent's 30,000 yen share of a device covered, once this scholarship is approved.

You do not qualify while the student is on leave or studying abroad, if they have already finished high school (with a narrow exception for some special-needs advanced courses), or if a parent was living overseas on 1 January of the year before the application and no tax record can be produced. A sudden drop in income can be considered.

What goes wrong

Trip savings and the student-council fee are charged either way.

What to do now