Following a sharp drop in enrollment amid the Fukushima nuclear crisis, the German School of Tokyo Yokohama, established more than a century ago, is facing financial difficulty and seeking aid from Berlin.
The institution, offering kindergarten, elementary and secondary schooling, requested financial aid from Germany in June and has been undertaking other steps to increase enrollment, school officials said.
Michael Szewczyk, head of the institution, said recently that he believes the request will be granted, given it is from the impact of the unprecedented nuclear crisis.
After the March 11 disasters hit, schools serving foreign nationals in Japan seen enrollment decline, the education ministry said. But a ministry official said they "have not heard of" a school facing financial crisis.
The Deutsche Schule Tokyo Yokohama mainly accommodates children of expatriates from Germany and other German-speaking countries, including Austria and Switzerland. One of the oldest schools for Germans in East Asia, it was set up in 1904.
After the disasters, the German government-accredited school saw enrollment fall by around by 130 students from some 460, with a majority repatriating or relocating on advice from Germany to evacuate because of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant crisis, according to the school, which is in Yokohama's Tsuzuki Ward, about 250 km southwest of the crippled atomic plant. The drop in students led the school to temporarily close.
Szewczyk said the school faced "a difficult situation" because of differences of opinions among parents regarding safety amid the nuclear disaster.
While many parents opted to go back to Germany, others who stayed in Japan sharply criticized the German Embassy and the school, asking on what grounds the embassy decided it was dangerous to stay in Japan or whether the school needed to follow its advice. The school was also hit by sensational media coverage of the crisis, he said.
