"Third-culture kids" are defined as those who have spent a significant portion of their younger years outside of their parents' culture. Most associate this term with families that have lived overseas, where children have been exposed to the first culture by their parents and the second by their foreign hosts, resulting in the kids growing up with a third culture that is a mixture of both.

But children don't necessarily have to live outside their parents' home country to foster this third culture. Increasing numbers of Japanese parents are going against the grain and placing their children in international schools here, principals at the schools say, even though the government classifies these institutions as gaikokujin gakkō (foreigner schools) designated as "educational institutions for non-Japanese students."

In a notoriously homogeneous society where parents can face criticism for going against the grain, what drives these parents to shun local schools and instead seek out these institutions, most of which are not accredited as fulfilling the compulsory education requirement mandated by the education ministry?