S'pore international school sparks Japan immigration debate

SAPPORO – For 111 years, the carefree laughter of children was woven into the everyday fabric of the suburban Tokiwa district in the south of Sapporo city, a neighbourhood surrounded by dense forests and rolling golf courses.

But the classrooms of Tokiwa Elementary School, which opened in 1910, have sat empty since 2021 in what is a textbook casualty of Japan’s deepening demographic winter. Today, its weather-beaten facade is boarded up and its front yard has been reclaimed by overgrown weeds.

When schools close, communities hollow out and Tokiwa, located 45 minutes away by public transport from central Sapporo – the capital city of Japan’s northernmost prefecture Hokkaido – is no different.

One Singapore-based private school operator, however, has a plan to breathe life into the district. Global Indian Education (GIE), which is part of Singapore-headquartered Global Schools Group (GSG), was in July 2025 named the winner of the bid for the plot of land where Tokiwa Elementary School sits for 25 million yen (S$200,000), above the state’s appraised value of 22.2 million yen.

GSG has a track record of 64 schools across 11 countries, including six campuses in Japan with four in Tokyo, one in Osaka and another in Tsukuba, a science city north-east of Tokyo. GIE proposed opening a prestigious international school in Tokiwa by August 2027, projecting 650 pupils by 2033.

But instead of being celebrated as an injection of vitality into the district, the plan became a lightning rod for backlash, a manifestation of nationalistic sentiment among a vocal segment of the Japanese public. Efforts by many local governments to woo foreign talent have been met by inevitable pushback.

A GIE public briefing in Tokiwa in September 2025 was hijacked by protesters using megaphones to drown out representatives and harangue attendees. By November, 90 public petitions had flooded the Sapporo City Assembly demanding a total shutdown of the project. Xenophobic rumours branded the school a “front for mass immigration” that would invite crime.

This was despite public records, detailed to the point of minutiae, showing GIE’s plan for inclusive enrolment not unlike its other campuses – in Osaka, 54.7 per cent are Japanese, while in Tsukuba, 82 per cent are Japanese.

It will provide an International Baccalaureate curriculum. The school will also serve as an emergency evacuation centre and, outside school hours, open its gymnasium to residents.

The complaints forced the project to be suspended but, on May 21, municipal lawmakers in a show of multipartisan unity unanimously rejected the petitions on grounds that they were based on untruths. This, in effect, was the green light to proceed.

“When we gathered feedback from actual residents living in the community, while not everyone was in favour, a vast majority supported the plan,” Liberal Democratic Party assembly member Ichiro Yamada told The Straits Times, noting that many of the petitions did not come from Tokiwa residents.

“But given the current political climate with the rise of ‘Japanese First’ sentiments of late, people have become extremely sensitive,” he said.

He added, however, that international schools are necessary infrastructure to increase Sapporo’s appeal for global talent.

“Our population isn’t going to suddenly increase tomorrow, but we certainly need it to grow,” he said, adding that while a concerted push must be made to ensure credible information reaches the public, this is easier said than done.

The nationalist ‘Japanese First’ political sentiment entered mainstream politics in the mid-2020s, as the conservative Sanseito party explicitly made the slogan its key election platform.

The populist movement pitted anxieties among locals caused by economic strain and inflation against the burgeoning and increasingly visible influx of foreign tourists and residents. The resultant momentum of the anti-foreign sentiment pressured the national government to impose stricter immigration controls.

Culture war

What was meant to be a story of suburban regeneration has instead exposed a culture war amid Japan’s halting transition to a multicultural society.

Sapporo’s foreign population has surged 2.7 times from 9,302 in June 2013 to 25,331 in June 2026. Today, foreign nationals account for a record 1.29 per cent of Sapporo’s 1.96 million residents, of whom one in three is a senior.

In response to the changing demographics, Sapporo became Japan’s first major municipality to enact a “community coexistence” ordinance, officially named Ordinance for Building a Community Where Everyone Can Connect with Each Other and Coexist.

Yuichi Sasaki of the city’s urban planning bureau said this means fostering “a society free from discrimination that draws strength from diversity”, with the policy formulated as a “philosophy” without any legal deterrent powers including against hate speech.

This is unlike cities such as Kawasaki and Osaka, which have enforcement measures against hate speech. Sapporo officials told ST that the situation in their city is not so severe as to warrant such a step, adding that it hopes to respect freedom of expression and diverse opinions.

In this climate, GIE appears to be retreating from the spotlight. When approached for comments, a GSG spokesperson told ST that “the local team is unavailable for comment or conversation at the moment”.

ST also reached out to protesters who claimed they were “not anti-immigrant, but against immigrant policy”. When asked what kinds of policy would be acceptable to them, they declined to comment, citing a distrust of the media.

Resisting hate

Grassroots resistance to the apparent xenophobia is led by the Counter-Racist Action Collective NORTH (C.R.A.C.NORTH), a decentralised and leaderless Hokkaido-based anti-discrimination collective connected to a nationwide network.

Since 2013, it has organised “counter-protests” to confront the blatant hatred displayed by a loud minority segment of the Japanese population, towards minority groups such as the Ainu people, who are indigenous to Hokkaido, and Zainichi Koreans. Many of the latter were born and raised in Japan and have roots in the Koreas.

But the recent expressions of abhorrence have turned towards foreigners.

These were fuelled by conspiracy theories, such as that of a “foreign takeover”, C.R.A.C.NORTH volunteer Hikari Sarashina, 40, told ST. Given that there are no penalties or effective enforcement mechanisms against hate speech, she said, “civic grassroots activism is effectively the only thing in their way”.

Protests against GIE and immigration took place in Sapporo over two weekends in June, with more planned for July 12 and July 19.

As protesters against the international school plan marched through the tranquil Tokiwa neighbourhood on June 14, anti-hate campaigners held up placards denouncing discrimination.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF SHUNSUKE YOSHIOKA

At each of these protests, C.R.A.C.NORTH holds counter-protests where volunteers hold placards and try to “drown out anti-immigration chants”, said Sarashina, who works in a labour union.

“Since the nature of hate speech makes it difficult for minorities to speak out directly, this is something I feel that we, as part of the majority, should step up and do,” she said.

But in speaking up for foreigners, Sarashina has been doxxed online and harassed at her workplace with nuisance calls.

”Our goal is to make discrimination visible as a social problem and ultimately push for a systemic eradication of the issue,” she said. “The idea of ‘coexistence’ looks good on the surface, but it strikes me as a major problem that nothing can be legally done when lines are crossed.”

While GIE is attracting attention, Sapporo already has two international schools.

One is the Hokkaido International School, which originally opened in 1958 as Hokkaido American School.

The other, Sapporo International School, began as the Sapporo Islamic International School in 2021 but rebranded in 2024 amid an increase in inquiries from non-Muslim families.

The school, accredited by the Japanese government, strongly emphasises Japanese language and culture education, alongside subjects such as English, science and IT. It continues to offer Islamic Studies for its Muslim students.

Today, it hosts 70 students aged three to 15, from 14 countries, including nine with Japanese parentage, said principal Mohamed Shehata, an Egyptian environmental scientist who moved to Japan in 2013 to pursue a doctorate at Hokkaido University.

Students and staff of Sapporo International School, including principal Mohamed Shehata (right), pose with students from the nearby Hokusei Gakuen Girls’ Junior High School after a cooking class where they learnt to cook halal food together and shared it.

PHOTO: SAPPORO INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

The father of four told ST that the school has hosted events such as bazaars to foster community ties.

But he could not help but notice a harsher political atmosphere that has emotionally impacted his own children, who fear being bullied or discriminated against.

“I personally don’t like it when foreigners are disrespectful of Japanese rules and values,” Shehata, 42, said. “As a school, we believe in working with both students and parents to ensure their smooth integration into society.”

Multicultural coexistence

Sapporo’s survival depends on this integration as it ramps up its efforts to woo foreigners, from bankers and tech executives to bus drivers and caregivers. Depending on their visa type, some may relocate with their spouses and children.

The city is aggressively leveraging its national designation as a Green Transformation/Artificial Intelligence Finance and Asset Management Special Zone to attract foreign business, investment and talent.

Officials are proactively promoting the city worldwide at international conferences from Singapore to Sweden, offering incentives such as tax breaks for companies that set up offices in the city. A dedicated office created to facilitate their entry has received inquiries from about 400 companies since 2023, with 10 foreign firms having established a presence.

To address the growing need for IT engineers, Sapporo is one of only five municipalities across Japan to offer expedited visa screening for foreign IT talent.

Simultaneously, the city is turning abroad to rescue its collapsing public infrastructure. Sapporo is the first municipal government in Japan to directly recruit foreign bus drivers, with such efforts done directly by bus companies elsewhere.

Hiroki Narumi of Sapporo’s public transport bureau told ST that the growing shortage of drivers has already led to a reduction in service frequency, although no routes have been discontinued yet. Within the last five years, the number of bus drivers has shrunk by 17 per cent, or 314 people, and this has resulted in a reduction of 2,040 bus trips daily, or 23 per cent.

Given that seven in 10 Sapporo bus drivers are aged 50 and above, Narumi said the situation will only get more acute.

In an initiative launched in April, Sapporo recruited 10 Vietnamese drivers. They are currently undergoing training in Vietnam and are slated to begin driving in Sapporo by late 2028, under five-year visas mandated by current Japanese immigration law.

A training session is held in Ho Chi Minh City for Vietnamese bus drivers who are slated to begin driving in Sapporo by late 2028.

PHOTO: CITY OF SAPPORO

“Securing Japanese drivers remains the priority, but accepting foreign personnel is necessary,” Narumi said, adding that the city chose a small cohort initially to gently acclimatise residents to seeing a foreigner behind the wheel.

Ryusuke Kida of Sapporo’s international relations department said that in the city’s ambition to become “a city where everyone, regardless of nationality, can live with peace of mind and thrive”, it is setting up consultation services and holding Japanese language and etiquette workshops for foreigners. It is also organising community events to create opportunities for mutual interaction.

Despite these best efforts, experts warn of a disconnect.

“There is often a major difference in temperature between locals and the municipal government,” said Hyunjoo Naomi Chi, a professor of immigration policy at Hokkaido University’s Graduate School of Public Policy.

“Many people aren’t informed and are not actively seeking to be informed, living in their social media echo chambers and forming their own prejudices,” Chi said. This creates misunderstandings that foreigners are being given preferential treatment.

And while she would support criminal penalties against hate speech as this would “directly and indirectly have an impact on how foreigners are treated in Japan”, she believed this would trigger inevitable accusations that foreigners are again being favoured.

Svetlana Paichadze, a professor in media and communication research at Hokkaido University, said Japan should fundamentally change its narrative from enacting “immigration policy” to one that focuses on building a society with foreigners.

“Japan wants more foreigners, but doing so creates problems. Yet, not having them causes problems too,” she said. It is a delicate balancing act between the need for foreigners and ensuring they can adapt while maintaining their own cultural identity.

Back in Tokiwa, the desire for renewal outweighs the political noise.

“It was heartbreaking to see Tokiwa Elementary fall into ruin,” said a local retiree who declined to be named given the sensitivities of the project. “I look forward to seeing it used as a school again where the voices of children can be heard, attracting young families and injecting new vitality into our neighbourhood.”

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