Study
Japanese schools are run by 6-3-3-4 year system and school year starts in April and ends in March. Students spends 6 years at elementary school and 3 years at junior high school and education at elementary and junior high school is obligatory. Then students got to high school for 3 years and spends 4 years at university. Most foreign exchange students from overseas starts studying in Japan from university or some go to Japanese language school with pre-college student visa before officially starting university education. Most children spend 3 year at kindergarten prior to joining elementary school. Those whose parents are working spends time at nursery school from baby before they join elementary school.
Japanese education is quite competitive so most students need to go to juku (preparatory school) to pass entrance exam to join high school. Some children go to juku in oder to take entrance exams for private kindergarten. As a result, education fees are quite expensive in Japan specially if students go to private schools. It is said that the total education fees are about 8 million yen per a child if he or she goes to public schools from kindergarten to university and approximately 16 million yen if he or she goes to private schools throughout his or her education. In addition, juku costs will incur so education fees are very expensive next to buying a house in most household in Japan.
For foreign nationals, there are several international schools in major cities in Japan. The official language at the most international schools is English and some Japanese students go to international school to become fully bilingual. The costs for the international schools are quite high and in general more expensive than famous Japanese private school. My expatriate boss had three children and they all went to the major international school in Tokyo and the all the costs were borne by the company. Although he doesn't have much to spend as housing and school costs are borne by the company, he liked to do Dutch when we go out for a drink. 
