This guide collects the facts international students need before applying to Toyo Language School（东洋语言学校）, a Japanese language school in Edogawa-ku, Tokyo. Everything below comes from the school’s official website (tls-japan.com), accessed on August 5, 2026; all fees are the amounts the school itself publishes, in Japanese yen. The official website remains the authority if any figure changes.
About Toyo Language School
Toyo Language School (TLS) is a Japanese language school operated by the Jikei Gakuen Group, a large education group whose professional training colleges are concentrated around the Nishi-Kasai and Kasai area of Tokyo. In May 2026 the school was certified by Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) as an “Accredited Japanese Language Educational Institution” under the Act on the Accreditation of Japanese Language Educational Institutions, meaning its curriculum, learning environment and teaching staff have been reviewed against national standards. The school is also registered with MEXT as a practical training organization for Japanese language teachers. Its stated philosophy is to help students “discover, think, and express themselves independently,” and it describes its own approach as combining practical education, human education and international education, the three founding principles of the Jikei Gakuen Group.
Location and Getting There
Toyo Language School is located at 7-6-3 Nishikasai, Edogawa-ku, Tokyo 134-0088. The nearest station is Nishi-Kasai on the Tokyo Metro Tozai Line, an eight-minute walk from the south exit. By airport limousine bus, the school quotes about 60 minutes from Narita Airport and about 40 minutes from Haneda Airport. The surrounding Edogawa Ward has the largest park area of Tokyo’s 23 wards, and the school notes that 13 professional training colleges of the Jikei Gakuen Group sit around the Nishi-Kasai and Kasai stations, making it a student-oriented neighbourhood with plenty of shops and services near the station.
Programs: The Career Design Course
Toyo Language School’s main offering for international students on a student visa is the Career Design Course, with two streams. The Career Design Course for Higher Education prepares students for entry to university, graduate school, professional training college or art university, and is offered in four lengths matched to the four intake dates: a two-year course starting in April, a one-year-nine-month course starting in July, a one-year-six-month course starting in October, and a one-year-three-month course starting in January. The Career Design Course for Employment, aimed at students who want to find work in Japan, runs for one year from April. In addition, the school offers a three-month Short-term Course for students studying during a long break from work or school (also available online, and visa-exempt for nationals of some countries), an auditors option, and online group and private classes for students who are not yet in Japan.
Curriculum and Teaching System
The curriculum at Toyo Language School is built around its original “JCT Education System” and a five-skill framework covering listening, reading, spoken interaction, spoken production and writing, supported by the school’s own textbook series called “CHANGE” and a learning-support system called “My Study.” One term lasts three months and students move up one level per term. After building a foundation from level A1 to B1, students are separated into destination-specific classes and work toward B2, with the school’s published level names being “Let’s start” (A1), “Take a step forward” (A2), “Make human relationship” (B1) and “Expand the topic” (B2). Beyond general language training, the school offers five specialised study plans (its “5-PLAN”) aimed at professional training college, university, graduate school, art university and employment, plus an art-university class with separate drawing/design and dissertation/interview instruction. The school year is divided into four terms — April to June, July to September, October to December and January to March — with long breaks around mid-August (August 13–15) and the New Year (December 28 to January 5).
Entry Requirements
The official admission policy of Toyo Language School states that applicants must have completed at least 12 years of education in their home country or be judged by the school to have equivalent qualifications. Because the course leads to a “Student” status of residence, applicants also need to show Japanese proficiency of level A1 or higher in the “Frame of Reference for Japanese Language Education,” as required by Japan’s Immigration Services Agency; for applicants who cannot take an approved examination, a record of roughly 150 hours of Japanese study at a language institution is accepted as an indicator of A1 equivalency. Toyo Language School points out that its own three-month short-term course or online classes can be used to build this basic Japanese before applying for the long-term course. The application itself involves submitting the application form and supporting documents, document screening and an interview, and the school lists the downloadable documents on its website: the school pamphlet, application procedures, the course application form, a form stating the reason for study, and a financial guarantor document.
Application Timing and Deadlines
Toyo Language School has four intakes per year — April, July, October and January — and the school staff apply for the Certificate of Eligibility (COE) with the Tokyo Immigration Services Agency about four to five months before each enrollment. The published application deadline is two weeks before the designated COE submission date for that intake, and the school advises that some applicants may need more than two weeks to prepare their documents. Working backwards from a target intake, the school’s published timeline runs about six months from first inquiry to arrival: five to six months before enrollment the student submits the application and documents and completes screening and interview; four to five months before enrollment the school files the COE application; one to two months before enrollment the COE is issued; about one month before enrollment the student applies for the student visa and makes travel arrangements. After arrival, newly entering students receive a residence card and must report their address at the local municipal office within 14 days; extension applications can be filed from three months before the card expires, and Toyo Language School will act as proxy for students who want that service.
Tuition, Fees and Payment
Toyo Language School publishes its full fee schedule on its official website, and all amounts below are the totals shown there. For the Career Design Course for Higher Education, the registration fee is ¥20,000 and the entrance fee ¥100,000 in every case; total tuition and other expenses vary with course length. The two-year April course totals ¥1,512,000 (tuition ¥1,224,000 plus other expenses ¥168,000); the one-year-nine-month July course totals ¥1,338,000 (tuition ¥1,071,000, other ¥147,000); the one-year-six-month October course totals ¥1,164,000 (tuition ¥918,000, other ¥126,000); and the one-year-three-month January course totals ¥990,000 (tuition ¥765,000, other ¥105,000). The one-year employment course (April intake) totals ¥816,000 (tuition ¥612,000, other ¥84,000). For a first payment, the school quotes ¥468,000 for the first six months (¥306,000 tuition plus ¥42,000 other expenses, on top of the registration and entrance fees), with tuition from the seventh month billed after enrollment. The art-university class costs ¥440,000 for drawing and design and ¥242,000 for the dissertation and interview component. The three-month short-term course and the auditors option are both ¥204,000 in total (entrance fee ¥30,000 payable once, tuition ¥153,000, other expenses ¥21,000), and online group lessons are ¥183,000 for three months. Payment can be made through Flywire, the settlement service contracted by the school, or by overseas remittance.
Accommodation and Daily Life
Toyo Language School offers its own student dormitories — five buildings with more than 250 rooms, all within a 15-minute bicycle ride of the school. Dormitory contracts run six months, rooms come furnished with appliances and WiFi, and no initial procedures are needed for electricity, gas or water; at the end of the contract the school works with a partner real-estate company to help students find an apartment. A dormitory-specific staff member is reachable through Microsoft Teams and a manager is available 24 hours. For students who prefer a homestay, the school’s partner organisation “Homestay in JAPAN” has about 5,000 registered host families across Japan. Daily-life support also includes a 24-hour emergency contact line, a partner clinic (Keiseikai Clinic, offering internal medicine and dentistry) where long-term students receive reduced consultation fees, and guidance on part-time work: with the relevant permission, international students may work up to 28 hours per week, with work in the entertainment industry prohibited. The school’s published sample monthly budget for a student is about ¥164,000 (rent ¥72,000, food ¥40,000, utilities ¥12,000, phone ¥10,000, other living costs ¥10,000 and entertainment ¥20,000).
Application Support and Next Steps
Toyo Language School handles the parts of the process that international applicants find hardest to manage from abroad: its staff prepare and file the Certificate of Eligibility application with the Immigration Bureau on the designated dates for each intake, and can act as proxy for residence-card extension applications. That makes the practical planning window roughly: contact the school six months ahead of the intake you want, complete the document screening and interview, wait for the COE, then apply for the visa and arrange travel about a month before enrollment. Because the deadline is defined as two weeks before the COE submission date rather than a fixed calendar date, the safe approach is to work backwards from your target intake and leave extra time for document preparation. All figures in this guide are from Toyo Language School’s official website as of August 5, 2026, and the official website remains the authority if anything changes. For advice on whether Toyo Language School fits your current Japanese level, target course and budget, speak with our study-abroad advisers.