Kawakami School Japan · Founded 1979 · Fully online since 2020
“I thought my child
had learned magic.”
That is what one father told us, watching his daughter add up the shopping in her head. No phone. No calculator. Just her mind, and a wooden frame she practises on twice a week with a teacher 9,000 km away.
She learns soroban — the Japanese abacus — from a small classroom in northern Japan. So do about 770 other children, in 26 countries.
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It looks like a wooden toy. That is what most fathers think.
Most non-Japanese parents have never seen a soroban before — and then their child starts calculating without a device.
In about six out of ten of our overseas families, the mother is Japanese and the father is not. Which means that, quite often, the father is meeting a soroban for the very first time in his life.
His honest reaction is usually some version of: “Wooden sticks and beads… what exactly is that going to do? We have calculators. We have computers. The child has a phone.”
We understand completely. It is a fair question.
And then, a few months later, they watch their own child work out the total at the supermarket — faster than the person holding the phone.
In Japan, a child who can do mental arithmetic is simply “a kid who does soroban.” In much of the rest of the world, that same child is something else entirely. Some of our students have become the child everyone crowds around at school — the one the teacher asks to demonstrate, the one other parents ask about. Mental calculation is one of the few talents that reads as magic in almost any language.
Two gifts, not one
Children here gain mental arithmetic and, because every lesson is taught in Japanese, they keep their Japanese alive too.
Gift one
The mental arithmetic
Soroban trains a child to picture the beads and move them in their mind. Our students describe it as seeing a transparent abacus behind their eyes. Once it is there, it does not leave. It is not a trick they perform; it is how they think about numbers.
Our school has produced a national champion in mental calculation for elementary students, and ranks first in Japan for the number of students passing Grade 1 in all five events of the Japan Abacus Committee examinations.
Gift two
Their mother’s language
This is the part most families do not expect, and end up valuing most. Every lesson is taught entirely in Japanese. For a child growing up in London or Los Angeles, that is a few hours every week where they count, listen, answer and joke in Japanese — with a Japanese teacher who is not their mother.
Many of our parents tell us plainly that they chose soroban partly to keep Japanese alive in their child. They get the arithmetic as well. We think that is a good trade.
We open at your after-school. Not ours.
Our lesson hours are spread across the day and into the Japanese night, so children abroad can attend at a normal hour where they live.
Takenori, our principal, describes our timetable as “open like a Japanese convenience store.” Lessons run every day except Sundays and national holidays — mornings (8:00–12:00 JST) and afternoons and evenings (15:00–21:00 JST). And then there is the slot that changed everything: 00:00–02:00 Japan time, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
| Where you are | The late-night Japan slot 00:00–02:00 JST · Tue / Thu / Sat | The afternoon Japan slot 15:00–21:00 JST |
|---|---|---|
| London | 16:00–18:00 — straight after school | 07:00–13:00 |
| Paris / Berlin | 17:00–19:00 — after school | 08:00–14:00 |
| New York | 11:00–13:00 — lunchtime | — |
| Los Angeles | 08:00–10:00 — morning | — |
| Dubai | 19:00–21:00 | 10:00–16:00 |
| Singapore / Hong Kong | 23:00–01:00 | 14:00–20:00 |
| Sydney | — | 16:00–22:00 |
Times shown for July. Daylight saving shifts some of them by an hour. The morning slot (8:00–12:00 JST) works well for Australia and New Zealand, and for students in Asia we can push a finishing time back by an hour where it helps. Tell us where you live and we will find the hour that fits your family.
Look at that first column again. Those lessons happen at midnight in Japan.
That is not an automated system running in the background. It is Takenori and his teachers, awake at 00:00 in a small town in Aomori, teaching children in London and New York at a comfortable hour for the children. Nobody has to drag a child out of bed at 5am. That single decision is most of the reason 26 countries is even possible.
One price. For everyone. Even from space.
Students abroad pay exactly the same tuition as students in Japan — there is no overseas rate.
One-time joining fee: ¥10,000 for beginners — and your child’s first soroban is included, sent as a gift. ¥5,000 if transferring from another school. Materials and examination fees are separate. Most overseas families pay by PayPal; a few use Wise.
We are asked this often, and always politely: “We live abroad, so we don’t pay Japanese consumption tax — shouldn’t our fee be lower?” The answer is no. Everyone pays the same.
Some families are not satisfied with that answer, so we show them what they do get: the early morning slot, the midnight slot, the extra hour we hold back for students in Asia. Those hours exist for them, and they cost us something real.
“Lately I see schools and teachers charging overseas families more.
I don’t understand it. We are teaching exactly the same thing.
The teacher has not suddenly become more skilled. He has not gained some special power.
Changing the price because of where a family happens to live — I think that is disrespectful.
So every KSJ student pays the same. Even if you studied with us from space.”
— Takenori Kawakami, Principal
What we should tell you before you book
Our lessons are taught only in Japanese, so a child who does not understand Japanese yet is not a good fit for us today.
We would rather lose a student than surprise a family. So, honestly:
- Every lesson is in Japanese. We do not currently teach in English.
- If your child’s Japanese is shaky, that is usually fine. Our teachers deliberately keep their Japanese simple, and many mothers sit beside their child for the first weeks. A great many children have started exactly this way.
- If your child does not understand Japanese at all, please don’t book with us. Around 0.5% of the families who contact us are in this position, and for them we introduce a partner school in the United States that we support. That is the better outcome for the child, even though it means we don’t get the student.
- We are working on it. We are now looking for teachers who can teach in English and other languages. The goal is a school that is genuinely global, not one that says it is.
How a lesson actually works
Lessons are held live on Zoom in small groups, with the teacher stepping in individually whenever a child gets stuck.
One more thing, because it matters more than any of the numbers on this page: there is no rush. Some children move up a grade quickly. Many do not, and that is completely normal. Our national champion could not do any of it at the start either — she cried through her early lessons. Every child finds their own pace, and the ones who keep going get there. That is the whole job.
Who is teaching your child
Kawakami School Japan has taught soroban for 47 years and is led by Takenori Kawakami, who has taught for 25 years.
We opened in 1979 in Towada, a small city in Aomori at the northern end of Japan’s main island. For decades we were an ordinary local classroom. In 2020 we moved online — and children began arriving from places we had never heard our name spoken.
Today around 770 students in 26 countries study with us, and 98% of them came because another family recommended us (1,348 of our last 1,380 students). We have never bought an advertisement. For 73 consecutive months we have welcomed at least ten new students every single month.
Our story has been covered by NHK, Japan’s national broadcaster, and by the regional paper Toonippo under the headline “Soroban: from Towada to the world.”
Questions parents abroad ask us
What language are the lessons in?
All lessons are taught in Japanese. Teachers keep their Japanese simple, and a parent is welcome to sit in at the beginning.
My child’s Japanese is not strong. Can they still join?
Yes, in most cases — many of our overseas children started with limited Japanese and a mother sitting beside them. If your child understands no Japanese at all, we will introduce you to our partner school in the United States instead.
Do families abroad pay more?
No. Every student pays the same tuition regardless of country: ¥7,700, ¥9,350 or ¥11,000 per month depending on how many lessons you take.
How do I pay from outside Japan?
Most overseas families pay by PayPal, and a smaller number use Wise.
Will my child have to wake up in the middle of the night?
No — we run lessons at 00:00–02:00 Japan time on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays precisely so that children in Europe and the Americas can attend after school or at lunchtime.
What age should a child start?
Many children start around five or six, though our youngest students are three and children join at every age — there is no window that closes.
Do we need to buy anything first?
No — your child’s first soroban is included with the beginner joining fee and is sent to you as a gift. You need a device with Zoom and a table.
What happens in the free trial?
Your child joins a real lesson, and you see how they respond before deciding anything. It is free, and there is no obligation to continue.
Let your child try it once.
You do not have to decide anything today. Book a free trial lesson, sit next to your child, and watch what happens in their face when the beads start moving in their head.
Tell us which country you are in and we will find an hour that works where you live. We reply to every enquiry within 24 hours.
Kawakami School Japan · Towada, Aomori, Japan · Online worldwide since 2020
Japanese speakers — our main site is here.