Moving to Japan with kids

We moved there with a 6 and 10 year old.  Our youngest had already started school in New Zealand as we start at 5 years old over there, and also spent some time in a Russian International school while living in Moscow for 6 months before Japan, so had some good school experience behind him before entering 1st grade in a Japanese public school.   This was total immersion language wise and both kids struggled for a good 6 months before finally starting to understand the language and then start learning.   We often wondered if we were doing the right thing when our kids would come home and say that they sat and doddled all day as they couldn't understand the teacher or that they didn't have many friends because they couldn't communicate.  Once they hit the 6 month mark and started to grasp the basics of the language they were both away (the younger one quicker than the older) both educationally and socially.  By the time they finished their time there 2 years later the youngest was basically a native level 8 year old while the older one was off watching Japanese movies and hanging out with the girls who only spoke Japanese.

Both our kids had a fascinating time in Japan and learnt so much about the culture and history of the country as well as the language.   We don't regret for one minute not being able to afford an English education at an overpriced International School and would recommend any family to give it a try.

It takes patience and commitment to make it work, the turning point for our daughter being when after spending a lot of time off school sick during the first 6 months her doctor told her that her problem was stress and that she needed to make some friends, and that is was as hard for the other kids as it was for her so rather than waiting for them to come to her to make the effort to reach out to them.  Her whole demeanour and well-being changed from that point on as her friendships started to flourish.