The British School in Tokyo, independent and coeducational, is the only British school in Japan, and the only school in Japan offering the English National Curriculum. It is a nonprofit organization, administered by a board of trustees representing the British and international community in Tokyo. The school's patron is Sir Graham Fry, British ambassador.

Chairman of the board of trustees since 2004 is Anthony Millington, a diplomat who is currently the director general of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association here.

Millington said: "Of the international schools in Japan, the British School is amongst the youngest. Traditionally, British parents used to send their children at a relatively early age back to school in the U.K. Today many more people want to keep their children with them. In the mid-1980s, there was a move among the British community to set up a British school to compare with the French, German and American schools. The school was to provide British-style education for children of any nationality who are fluent in English. The British School in Tokyo is regularly visited by U.K. inspectors to ensure that U.K. levels are met. The school has grown very rapidly, and currently has an enrollment of about 500 students of 30 nationalities."

Millington has the flexibility and width of experience often associated with British education at its higher levels. A Cambridge graduate in economics, he went on a Rotary scholarship for a year to the University of Chicago, where he met his American wife. He was already accepted in the Foreign Office, which deferred his appointment for that year. He returned to become the administrative trainee in the West African Department of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. In 1969, delighted to come with his wife by ship from England, he became a Japanese-language student at the British Embassy, Tokyo. Once here, he said, "I was absolutely fascinated by the country and its culture." He acted as the British Olympic team attache at the Sapporo Winter Games in 1972. "It was an extraordinary experience spending that time in Sapporo. It gave me a place on the Olympic sports team," he said.

After serving as first secretary, economics, at the embassy in Tokyo, then at the East European and Soviet Department in London, followed by the Defense Department, Millington as first secretary went to the British Embassy in Paris. "That was a fantastic job, following French politics," he said. In 1984 he spent a year in Tokyo at the Japanese National Institute for Defense Studies, "the first Western civilian to attend that institute." He became head of chancery in Tokyo, then head of the Far Eastern Department in London.

"The F.O. has also a system of midcareer development to give people stability, and experience in industry," Millington said. Accordingly, he was president of Rolls-Royce (Far East Ltd.) in the Japanese government regulatory reform commission before taking his present position. He was able also to study at the University of Grenoble, where he perfected his French and improved his German.

He now represents to the Japanese government the common interests of the European automobile industry in Japan, in particular on trade policy and regularity issues that focus on safety and the environment.

Millington enjoys country walking and tennis, and is a director of the Tokyo Lawn Tennis Club. His sons, both born in London, are young adults for whom the British School in Tokyo happened too late for them to take advantage of it. Both of them work in the States, "so we also keep a U.S. orientation."

The British School in Tokyo, he says, has a strong outdoor program, and a sports club that is run by parents as well as the staff. The school gives special attention, too, to musical tuition and has a wide range of extracurricular activities. The PTA is active and keen in promoting charitable and social events.

The Shibuya campus, "refreshed and reorganized," accommodates children from nursery to year four. The Showa campus, new from this September, at the Showa Women's University, Setagaya Ward, takes youngsters in years five to nine. "We have benefited from partnership with schools in Japan which help us acquire facilities," he said. "Eventually we want to expand the school right up to the school-leaving age."

A formal opening ceremony for the school's Showa campus is scheduled for Sept. 28.