Finnish School in Japan

Finnish School in Japan (Japanese: 日本フィンランド学校; Finnish: Japanin suomalainen koulu), nicknamed JASUKO, was a Finnish international school in Ōtsu, Shiga Prefecture, Japan. It served grades 1-11,[1] and later Kindergarten-6.[2]

History

The Finnish Free Foreign Mission established the school, which was originally intended for the sons and daughters of Finnish missionaries. Jasuko opened the fall of 1964 in a church in Chausuyama. Other missionary organizations, including the Finnish Lutheran Mission (FLM), the Finnish Lutheran Overseas Mission (FLOM), and the Lutheran Evangelical Association of Finland (LEAF), joined the efforts to run the school. Parents and volunteers built a structure that the school used until 1987. The peak enrollment was 43 students, most of whom were boarding students, in the spring of 1987. That year a new classroom building and dormitory opened.[3]

The school population declined as the number of missionaries decreased in the 1990s. The school closed when the missionary cooperation ceased in 2003. In 2006 the school reopened as a trilingual Japanese-Finnish-English school but it closed again in 2008.[3]

Joona Kallio, a former student, designed a logo for the school's 50 year anniversary. The "5" appears like the Japanese hiragana "ち" and the colors used are those of the flag of Finland.[4]

References

1. "General information Provided for Visitors from Abroad" (Archive). Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Kinki Regional Development Bureau. Retrieved on November 1, 2015.
2. "A Guide for Living in Osaka Enjoy Osaka Archived 2016-03-02 at the Wayback Machine." City of Osaka. p. 91.
3. "The Finnish School in Japan 50 years" (Archive). Embassy of Finland in Tokyo. August 18, 2014. Retrieved on November 1, 2015.
4. "The Finnish School in Japan 50th anniversary logo" (Archive). Embassy of Finland in Tokyo. Retrieved on November 1, 2015.

Further reading

• (in Japanese) Tahara, Masako (田原 昌子). "Music Education in Finland I : Case Study of Practical Applications at the Finnish School in Japan and Music Classes in Finnish Primary Schools" (Archive; フィンランドの音楽教育I : 日本フィンランド学校での指導とフィンランドの小学校音楽科授業視察を事例として). Journal of Poole Gakuin University (プール学院大学研究紀要) 49, 299–310, 2009–12. Poole Gakuin University. See profile at CiNii.
• (in Japanese) "フィンランド人コミュニティー" (Archive). Embassy of Finland in Tokyo - The Japanese page discusses the Finnish school; this information is not in the English version of the page.

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