Yokohama Yamate Chinese School


The Yokohama Yamate Chinese School is a Chinese-style primary and junior high school in Naka-ku, Yokohama, Japan. Serving levels kindergarten through ninth grade, it is one of two Chinese schools in Japan oriented towards Mainland China, and one of five Chinese schools total. As of 2008 Pan Minsheng is the principal.
It was formed after the 1952 split of the Yokohama Chinese School, which had been established by Sun Yat-sen. Yokohama Yamate was aligned to the People's Republic of China while the sister school Yokohama Overseas Chinese School was aligned to the Republic of China on Taiwan. In 2008 Pan stated that all of the graduating students pass entrance examinations to attend Japanese senior high schools.

Education

Classes are taught in both Japanese and Chinese, with each subject being taught in one particular language. Fifth through ninth graders take English classes. Most instruction at the kindergarten level is in Japanese. The school teaches Hanyu Pinyin and Simplified Chinese.

Student demographics

As of 1995 the school had 300 students, with 15% of the students being Japanese nationals who only spoke Japanese and the remainder being any of the following: Chinese-Japanese, Chinese students with mixed Japanese and Chinese parents, students with Chinese parents, and returnees from Mainland China.
As of 2008 it had 413 students: 10% were ethnic Japanese; 70% of the students were Japanese citizens and 30% were Chinese citizens.

Teacher demographics

As of 1995 the teaching staff consisted of four Japanese persons born in Japan, 19 Chinese persons born in Japan, and two persons born in Mainland China, resulting in a total of 25.