Meitoku Gijuku Senior High School (明德义塾高等学校) is a private senior high school in Kochi Prefecture, Japan, forming a combined junior-senior school with Meitoku Gijuku Junior High School. The school’s official website, checked on 5 August 2026, presents three defining features: international education, full boarding, and competitive sports. It reports sister-school ties with 119 schools in 12 countries and regions (as of April 2026), says roughly one-third of its students are international students, and describes about 90 percent of students as boarders. This guide works through the programs, entry requirements, published costs and support structures so you can check the details against the school’s own site. Everything here comes from the official pages; the school’s self-descriptions reflect its own positioning, not any external ranking.
What kind of school Meitoku Gijuku Senior High School is
Meitoku Gijuku Senior High School dates back to 1972, when the school corporation was approved; the junior high opened in 1973, the senior high in 1976, and the current name was adopted in 1984. The school celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023. Its founding spirit, as stated on the “Philosophy and History” page, is the three-part human education of virtue, body and intellect, and the name “Meitoku” comes from a passage in the Chinese classic The Great Learning. The school runs two campuses: Donoura Campus (the main campus) in Susaki City, Kochi, hosting the junior high regular classes and the senior high Comprehensive course, and Ryu Campus in Tosa City, hosting the junior high advanced classes and the senior high International course. For international families the composition of the student body matters as much as the facilities: the school guide says about one-third of enrolled students are international students, and sister-school students visit throughout the year, so daily life on campus is itself an exchange environment.
Programs at Meitoku Gijuku: International and Comprehensive course lines
Meitoku Gijuku Senior High School organizes its senior high into an International line and a Comprehensive line. The International line at Ryu Campus offers four courses. The Special Advanced Course targets national and public university admission, with the school saying students reach the level of the common university entrance test by grade 2 and spend grade 3 on exam preparation; it covers humanities, sciences and medical tracks. The English Course offers a one-year study abroad in Canada or Australia from the third term of grade 1 into grade 2 for those who want it, while students who stay in Japan take 15 hours of English tuition per week plus a TOEIC special class. The Chinese Course centers on six Chinese lessons per week with a study-abroad option in China (or Taiwan) and stated targets of the Chinese proficiency test at grade 4 in grade 1 and level 2 or 3 by graduation. The Japanese Course accepts international students and returnees who need Japanese support, with two tracks: the International Liberal Arts track (3 years), which starts with intensive Japanese before moving to content subjects taught in Japanese, and the University Preparation track (1 year), which offers individual exam preparation for Japanese university entrance exams, the Examination for Japanese University Admission for International Students (EJU) and the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test (JLPT).
Beyond the courses themselves, the International line comes with structural extras. The school reports sister-school ties with 119 schools in 12 countries and regions (April 2026 figures), with a credit-transfer system that lets students still graduate in three years after a long study abroad. In grade 2, students can join the Dual Certificate Program: one year at the Louis Riel School Division in Manitoba, Canada, leading to both the Meitoku Gijuku high school diploma and a Canadian high school diploma. The school also states it was selected in fiscal 2024 for the Ministry of Education’s DX High School program and in 2025 became one of 20 “Global DX High Schools” nationwide, using AI translation, VR and 3D printers for joint inquiry learning with sister schools. These are the school’s own accounts of its programs and designations.
Entry requirements for international students at Meitoku Gijuku
Meitoku Gijuku Senior High School publishes its entrance requirements by category on the “Examination Information” page. Domestic junior and senior high entrance exam outlines and returnee-student outlines are available as PDFs, alongside web application portals; the page states that the junior high transfer exam and the overseas international student entrance exam are handled by inquiry, with no unified outline published. The current publicly available outline for the returnee high school entrance exam (academic year 2027, published as the Reiwa 9 outline) shows the school’s general admission framework. Eligibility covers students expected to graduate from the junior high division of a Japanese school in March 2027, or students who have reached the equivalent grade and age at a local or international school and are willing to follow the school’s educational policies and rules. Applications are accepted across all five courses (Special Advanced, English, Chinese, Comprehensive and Japanese), with an overseas quota of 20 places shared across courses. The exam consists of written tests in English, mathematics and Japanese (100 points each, 50 minutes each) plus an interview with a parent or guardian, and students who would find it difficult to take the exam in Japanese are asked to notify the school in advance. The examination fee is 35,000 yen.
The overseas timeline, also from the 2027 outline, runs: application period 28 August to 8 October 2026; exam venues on 30 October (China, Shanghai or Beijing), 31 October (Taipei), 7 November (Bangkok), 10 November (Singapore), 12 November (Kuala Lumpur) and 17 November (Jakarta), with online exams possible; results announced on 3 December 2026 by email; and admission procedures, including payment of the initial enrollment fee, between 4 and 17 December 2026. Separate Japan-based sessions exist for out-of-prefecture, recommendation and general applicants. Two cautions apply: this outline covers the returnee category, and the school states that the overseas international student entrance exam for foreign students is handled by inquiry, so its details and fees are not published on the site. Examination categories and dates change by year, so the current official outline should be treated as the operative source.
Costs published for the 2027 entrance exam at Meitoku Gijuku
Meitoku Gijuku Senior High School publishes its fee structure in the entrance exam outline PDF for academic year 2027. Initial enrollment fees are 300,000 yen for boarders (100,000 yen admission fee plus 200,000 yen facility fee) and 200,000 yen for day students (100,000 yen admission fee plus 100,000 yen facility fee). Annual fees after enrollment for boarders total 1,634,000 yen: tuition 480,000 yen, ICT equipment fee 24,000 yen, dormitory fee 360,000 yen, meals 564,000 yen, common expenses 96,000 yen, parents’ association fee 84,000 yen, futon rental 21,000 yen and safe rental 3,000 yen, with a 2,000 yen joining fee in the first year. Day students pay 722,000 yen per year: tuition 480,000 yen, ICT equipment fee 24,000 yen, lunch 132,000 yen and parents’ association fee 84,000 yen. A commuter bus contribution of 72,000 to 252,000 yen per year applies depending on the pickup point, and payments can be made in one lump sum, two instalments or twelve monthly instalments.
Two boundaries matter for international families. First, these figures come from the returnee entrance exam outline; the overseas international student entrance exam has no published fee schedule on the site, so its amounts must be confirmed through the school’s own channels rather than assumed from this table. Second, study-abroad costs are charged separately and are not published, so families planning the Dual Certificate Program or a sister-school exchange should budget that item separately. All amounts come from the current official outline and are subject to annual revision; treat the latest published fee table as the reference point.
Boarding, support and progression at Meitoku Gijuku
Meitoku Gijuku Senior High School is built around boarding, and that is the main support structure for international students. The school says its dormitory system has its origins in the British public school tradition, with student self-governance as the base and teachers living on campus alongside students. Dormitories include Kawamataki, the girls’ main building, Dormitories 11 and 12 and Seiun at Donoura Campus, and Yotoku at Ryu Campus, each with a shop, large bath, vending machines and washing machines. Because roughly 90 percent of students board, academic support is embedded in dormitory life: the Special Advanced Course states that school teachers, rather than outside cram schools, take responsibility for academic progress through after-school classes, study camps and intensive exam training, and international students in the Japanese Course can join the JAPAN Club, which runs daily EJU and JLPT preparation lessons.
For progression, the school’s “University Admissions” page lists past destinations including overseas universities (University of California, Berkeley; University of Sydney; Dalian University of Technology; and others), national and public universities (University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Hokkaido University, Osaka University and others) and private universities (Waseda, Keio, Sophia, Meiji, Chuo, Hosei, Rikkyo and Doshisha, among others). This list is the school’s own historical record with no year attached, so it should be read as an indication of direction rather than a current acceptance rate or guarantee. Taken together, Meitoku Gijuku Senior High School suits students who are comfortable with full boarding, want an internationally mixed environment for their high school years, and are aiming at Japanese or overseas university progression. Fees and exam categories should always be checked against the school’s latest official pages. This guide was written on 5 August 2026 from the official site; if you are weighing this school, you can consult the advisers on this site with your grade level, Japanese ability and goals, and cross-check the details against the school’s current publications.