Aoba International School was originally founded in 1976 with the first offerings from nursery school to pre-first grade to provide a four-year bilingual pre-first grade education, primarily for Japanese children. The school then quickly became a popular choice for early childhood education within both the international and Japanese communities for more options to parents when choosing a program that best suited their children’s need. It was originally located in close proximity to the American School and a cluster of Japanese kindergartens, but the school moved three times to Harajuku, Shibuya, and Suginami Ward. And the school merged with Japan International School, and changed its name to Aoba-Japan International School (hereinafter referred to as Aoba).

In October 2012, the school moved to its present location in Hikarigaoka in order to achieve another long-sought vision—the acquisition of a full services school facility and campus. Beyond the multi-level standard school building, the new campus houses a full football pitch, a gymnasium, a pool, playground, parking, and more. Aoba is now a mainstream school from K2 to grade 12 that is not only accredited by the NEASC and CIS, but also, as of June 2015, became an IB World School. And in 2016, Aoba was officially granted MYP and full IB World School status (PYP, MYP, DP).

Aoba is one of the only full IB World Schools in the Tokyo area and features the typical characteristics expected of an IB school. Aoba has also been honoured to be selected as the MEXT IB Consortium Chair in recognition of its expertise in IB curriculum and pedagogy. What sets Aoba apart from other schools, however, is the innovative, progressive approaches to learning we employ from Kindergarten through Grade 12.

Aoba consistently features authentic team-based inquiry in all three IB programmes at the school: PYP, MYP, and DP. The school takes a multi-age, transdisciplinary approach to the IB that really brings the programmes to life for students. Their students co-plan their learning with their teachers and are supported to truly take ownership of their studies whilst developing desirable marketplace skills and dispositions. Students move beyond simply solving problems for themselves or even solving them for others. Aoba seeks to develop students that can create the conditions to empower others to solve problems for themselves, a more sophisticated and powerful mode of leading positive change in the world.

Hikarigaoka Campus early years caters from K3 to K5 (3 to 6 years old). Children are challenged on a daily basis through the curriculum where they learn how to solve problems, communicate thoughts and feelings effectively, collaborate with others and develop as a whole child.

In the Middle Years Programme, the school emphasises the core values of global leadership, entrepreneurship, and innovation. They also concentrate on developing independent and interdependent learners who are able to draw upon strong academic skills of enquiry, critical thinking and analysis to discover and apply new knowledge.

They future-proof their middle school learners, helping them to excel along multiple pathways that, in high school, mean a variety of options such as self-designed courses (Global Leadership Diploma Programme that learners and teachers develop together) and the internationally recognised Diploma Programme.

Grade 10 is specifically designed to support students to wise subject choices and make informed decisions about the most suitable IB or GLD programme on offer at AOBA in Grades 11 and 12. One of the three foundational frameworks underpinning the Grade 10 programme is the student advisory programme that provides regular expert coaching by teachers to support students in their social emotional well being, university and career options, and strategies for learning. The advisor teacher is responsible for a small group of 10 or less students that enables them to strengthen the partnership between the school, student and parent. This group consists of multiple grade students, so we also can expect the interaction between junior and senior students in the conversation which is sometimes much more efficient than the one with adults.

The new Bunkyo Campus for Senior Years students will be opening in 2022.