As of 1992 the Ministry of Education of Japan funds the school,[2] which is one of the two Japanese day schools of the Japanese Educational Institute of New York (JEI; ニューヨーク日本人教育審議会 Nyūyōku Nihonjin Kyōiku Shingi Kai), a nonprofit organization which also operates two Japanese weekend schools in the New York City area.
[7] The school was established because several Japanese parents were concerned with their children's education in the U.S., and all parties at the school emphasized re-integration into the Japanese educational system when the students return to their home countries.
[8] Due to an increasing student population, the school moved to a new location in Queens in December 1980.
Because Daycroft had unknowingly violated town code by selling land and having too high of a building/land ratio, the Japanese school faced a possibility of demolishing historic buildings, but ultimately did not do so after an agreement with the town government was made.
The school had concerns about remaining financially solvent due to fewer tuition dollars collected.
[14] The Carmel Academy, which owned the previous Greenwich site, had closed its school facility, and the Brunswick School, which was scheduled to be the new owner, planned to convert the former Greenwich site into housing for employees.
[15] The current campus is located in the Riverside census-designated place,[16] in Greenwich, Connecticut.
It was previously used as the Father Vincent J. O'Connor Center,[17] of the St. Catherine of Siena Church.
[19] This campus, the former Rosemary Hall school for girls, had 18 acres (7.3 ha) of space and over 15 buildings.
Rick Lyman of the Philadelphia Inquirer said in 1988 that the red brick building had been covered in graffiti.
[9] By the 2000s, several buildings in the Greenwich campus were vacant due to the decreased student population.
In addition to the Japanese curriculum, students also take American social studies and extra English lessons.
[1] As of 1987 it offered a "morals" class which teaches children how to work in groups and following the mores of Japanese society.
[13] In 1987 Torao Endo, the principal, said that in this school students are encouraged to volunteer their own answers to questions and to directly say what they think, in keeping with American culture; Endo said that such behaviors are discouraged in Japanese schools.
[8] As of 1983[update] the students attending the school tended to be the children of bankers, businesspeople, and diplomats.
Japanese society had the concept that boys would take jobs in large, stable companies, and that girls would become educated, but would primarily become housewives.
[29] When the school was first established, most of the students lived in Queens, and some commuted from New Jersey and Westchester County.
[1] In 1986 students came from all five New York City boroughs, Long Island, New Jersey, and Westchester County.
In 1983 the majority of Japanese national students within Greater New York City attended U.S. schools.
When it moved to a new location in Queens in 1980, it held a fair to introduce Japanese culture to Americans living in the area.