S'pore international school sparks Japan immigration debate

Singapore, Singapore Jul 11, 2026 ALN: 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 neighborhood 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), 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 northeast 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 rumors 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 enrollment not unlike its other campuses – in Osaka, 54.7 percent are Japanese, while in Tsukuba, 82 percent are Japanese.

It will provide an International Baccalaureate curriculum. The school will also serve as an emergency evacuation center 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 favor, 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.

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 percent 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 decentralized and leaderless Hokkaido-based anti-discrimination collective connected to a nationwide network.

Since 2013, it has organized “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 fueled 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.