Admission to Desired School Yet Parents Suffer: Harrowing Reality of Junior High School Entrance Exams and the Aftermath Reveals a Billing Hell of Over 20 Million Yen

In Tokyo and Kanagawa, you may have seen parents and children traveling by train frequently in the mornings for several days starting on February 1. The cause of this familiar annual scene is junior high school entrance examinations. Despite the declining birthrate, the number of students taking entrance exams for junior high schools in the Tokyo metropolitan area is heating up. The number of applicants to private and national junior high schools has increased for nine consecutive years until last year, reaching a record high of 52,600 last year. The number is expected to reach the same level this year.

The cost of taking junior high school entrance exams is substantial. In preparation for the crucial battle in February, many children begin attending a major cram school in February of their third year of elementary school, or even as early as their first year of elementary school.

Examinations for private schools begin on February 1, and for national and public schools on February 3.

In Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture, junior high school entrance examinations for private schools will be held on February 1, and those for public schools and national junior high schools on February 3. Many students who take the junior high school entrance exam will take the exam at several schools, including those that they have not yet passed. Many students take the examinations of different schools in the morning and afternoon. Some students change the school they take the next day based on the results of the previous day’s exam. All of this is done in order to secure a successful entrance exam.

On the morning of the day of the entrance examinations, cram school teachers wait at the school gates of difficult or famous junior high schools. They are there to encourage the students who will be taking the entrance examinations.

Naturally, it is the parents who bear the cost of cram school fees and other educational expenses. The websites of major cram schools do not clearly indicate the cost of cram school. It is only after visiting a school information session that the parents learn about the monthly fees. Furthermore, how many parents know that the cost increases rapidly in the 6th grade?