Osaka YMCA International School


Osaka YMCA International School is an international school in Kita-ku, Osaka, Japan. Osaka YMCA International School is an English-based, private international school, offering preschool to grade 9. The school year starts at the beginning of September and goes to the beginning of July–a fall-spring calendar. OYIS began operations in 2001 and received gakko hojin status from the Osaka prefectural government in 2012. OYIS is in the process of creating a high school program that will include the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program and will lead to grade 12 graduation. They will add grade 10 from September 2020 and add a grade every year after that. OYIS is currently accredited by the International Baccalaureate Organization and by the US-based Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

History

The school was established in September 2001 from a partnership of Osaka city and the YMCA. In 2002 Alex Stewart of The Journal of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan wrote that "Osaka city, at least, seems to have woken up to the importance of Osaka YMCA International School."

Student body

William A. Fischel, author of Making the Grade: The Economic Evolution of American School Districts, stated that a version of the OYCS website which had names of students, "at least half of which suggest Japanese parentage", made him conclude that OYIS was not only for North American families.