[Nyororin]

There are very few Montessori schools in Japan. In fact, there are very few "private" elementary schools in general.

I am not sure of the ages of your children, but I wouldn`t worry much if they are in the kindergarten to elementary school age range. Junior high and up is where things start to get rough.

My local elementary school has relatively short hours with quite a lot of recess time. At the elementary level, the amount of schoolwork is also very low (too low!) in my opinion.

If you are only going to be in Japan for a short period of time, then I would personally not worry all that much about schooling. The reason why there is pressure put on kids here is that they are aiming for harder to get into schools at later levels. If you`re not planning for a future of Japanese schooling, school can be a very relaxed and free thing. It`s all up to whether you`re pushing your kids to aim for entrance into somewhere prestigious down the line.

For example - regular school hours for elementary school seem to be 8:30 to 1:30 around here.
But it`s pretty normal for a kid to get up and leave for school at 7:00 (15+ minute walk to school, then an hour to socialize, play, or study before the day starts.) and get home at 5 or 6 (Cleaning duty for 30 minutes, after school sports practice until 3:00, tutoring for another hour+, then lessons in something like piano).
In other words, you could basically ignore all of the extra curricular stuff, and have your child get to school 15 minutes before the day starts and get home 15 minutes after the day ends. In my experience though, most kids will jump to join into those sort of activities at the elementary school level because all of their friends are doing so too.

You could leave it up to your children and find a good balance. If they want to come home ASAP after the day is over, nothing is going to stop them. I have noticed that the opinions of Japanese schooling really seriously varies with the attitude parents have toward it. If you feel your children need to be doing everything all the other kids are doing, it can be stifling. If you feel that your kids need to be pushed more in the classroom - it can be incredibly inadequate.

Beyond elementary school, the pressure does increase in the classroom - there are few students who aren`t aiming to go to high school, and to get into the school you want to go to you need to pass the entrance exam. High school isn`t mandatory in Japan, so kids study hard to attend the school of their or their parent`s choice. But, in the same thread as elementary school, if you`re not worrying about exams later on... You can pretty much just ignore it and glide right on through with a huge amount of freedom.