Okinawa AMICUS International School opens

Okinawa AMICUS International School opens

Okinawa AMICUS International school (AMICUS) has opened. It is the first school in Japan to run two separate courses in a single school that has an elementary and junior high school plus a kindergarten. Akira Yamauchi (center of photo), the principal of AMICUS, delivered a speech at the opening ceremony on April 7 at the Okinawa AMICUS International school (AMICUS) in Enobi, Uruma City


April 7, 2010 Ryukyu Shimpo

The Okinawa AMICUS International School (AMICUS) was opened in Enobi, Uruma-City, Okinawa on April 7.

AMICUS will accept children of researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), which is scheduled to open in the 2012 academic year. It is the first school in Japan to run two separate courses within the same system: the international course and the immersion course in which Japanese and non-Japanese children study together.

This academic year, 197 children will enroll in the AMICUS elementary and junior high school and kindergarten sections, which cater for first to fourth grade pupils.

At the opening ceremony, Akira Yamauchi, the principal of AMICUS, said, “The aim of our school is to encourage children to expand their knowledge, to learn how to think on their own, and to act by themselves. Our educational philosophy aims to create independent students.”

Yamauchi’s address was followed by the entrance ceremony, at which representatives of Okinawa Prefecture, Uruma City and Obunsha Publishing Co., Ltd. exchanged memorandums on the establishment of AMICUS in July 2008. The preparation for the opening of AMICUS was carried out by the Okinawa Kokusai Gakuen Establishment Preparatory Foundation.

(English Translation by T&CT, Mark Ealey）

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