School Visit Program: Japan in the Classroom
This is a free program offered to teachers at K-12 schools that teach classes that include Japan-related units or lessons. Presentations at local colleges and universities may be arranged upon special request.
Program Objectives
The Consulate aims to foster a greater understanding of Japan, Japan’s place in the world, and Japan-US relations amongst our younger generation. By offering Japan in the Classroom, it is our hope that your students will be inspired to continue their learning outside of the classroom and expand their outlook on the world.
How to Apply
If you are interested in this program, please fill in the request form below that corresponds to the semester during which you would like to request a school visit.
We will process applications accordingly, but please note that we cannot guarantee that we will be able to meet every request.
Please fill out the following form if you would like to request a school visit anytime between April 28 to June 30.
SPRING SEMESTER 2025 Request Form
Accepting applications up until May 30 5:00 PM (PST)
Please fill out the following form if you would like to request a school visit anytime between August 1 to December 19.
FALL/WINTER SEMESTER 2025 Request Form Accepting applications up until November 19 5:00 PM (PST)
Once you have completed the form, we will send you a confirmation email and instructions for next steps (please allow a few days for us to respond).
If we are able to work out an agreed school visit date according to your request, our staff will work with you to tailor the school visit topic and activities to your class's needs where possible.
For further details on the School Visit Program and its conditions, please see FAQ.
Contact us
For more information on the School Visit Program, please contact our Education Coordinator.
TEL: 415-780-6086
Email: education@sr.mofa.go.jp
School Visit Archive
For information and pictures from the Consulate's previous school visits, please see School Visit Archive.
School Visit Program FAQ
We request that teachers give us at least one month advance notice so that we can adequately prepare our presentation materials and balance our school visit commitments with other consulate activities. If we cannot come on your requested date, we will do our best to arrange a mutually convenient date.
2. Is there a limit to the number of school visits scheduled each semester?
Due to limited staff availability, we are only able to accommodate 1-2 school visits per month, and up to 6-10 school visits per semester.
3. How far do you travel for these visits?
While we are most accessible to schools that are located within the immediate San Francisco Bay Area (within about 50 miles or 1 hour's drive from the Consulate), we are open to travelling to schools anywhere within our jurisdiction of Northern California and Nevada.
If your school is located outside of the immediate Bay Area and you would like to request a visit, please let us know and we will try our best to accommodate your request.
Due to our hours of operation, we request that all school visit sessions begin no earlier than 10:00am and finish no later than 4:00pm.
4. How long do these visits go on for?
Our visits typically last the duration of an average class, approximately one hour.
5. Can I have you visit multiple classes?
We are happy to make presentations to a maximum of two classes in one day as long as the presentations are similar in content and the class level is the same. Such arrangements must be made beforehand.
6. What kind of topics can you present on?/ What kind of activities can you lead?
Topics can be customized to your classroom needs – for younger students, our presentations are mainly activities-based (Japanese games, kamishibai, basic traditional crafts such as origami etc.), but for older students, we shift to a lecture-based format and can cover such topics as Japanese culture, Japanese school life, history, U.S.-Japan relations with power point presentations, video and Q & A.
To supplement and enhance the experience of our presentations, we have a variety of materials that we can bring from our office. If you have a particular activity in mind, please let us know and we will try our best to accommodate your request.
7. Is there a limit to the number of students you can accommodate?
Depending upon the type of presentation, we may ask you to limit the number of students.
8. Is this program just for teachers of Japanese?
We are happy to entertain requests from teachers of other subjects teaching about Japan in their curriculum. The majority of our school visits focus on elementary, middle, and high school classes, but presentations to local colleges and universities can be arranged upon special request.
9. Which staff members will come to visit us?
The Education Coordinator will be the primary staff conducting the presentations.
However, depending on the type of classroom presentation requested, another staff from the Consulate may accompany and join in on the program.
10. Can we come and visit the Consulate?
In the case that you wish to visit, please contact us in advance to discuss the purpose of your visit and we may be able to accommodate you depending on staff availability.