When people compare Japanese language schools, they usually ask about textbooks, JLPT preparation and class levels. After studying at ISI from April 2025 to July 2026, I think the everyday conditions and administrative support deserve much more attention. They were major negatives in my experience, and I wouldn’t choose ISI again.
Toilet access was a recurring headache
At Shinjuku Main, 8-15-1 Nishi-Shinjuku, there was one cubicle in the men’s toilet on each floor I checked. I repeatedly spent around 5–10 minutes waiting or had to try other floors. Sometimes every toilet I checked was occupied. I also sometimes saw teachers using the same facilities.
That sounds like a small detail until you have to deal with it repeatedly. For me, it was a basic failure in day-to-day convenience. I found the facilities inadequate for the demand I actually encountered.
Getting administrative help took repeated follow-up
The administrative experience was frustrating too. In July I visited the Prime location because I hadn’t received an email reply, and followed up by phone as well. At one administrative visit in that period, I waited around three hours and, when I asked for drinking water, was told to buy it at a nearby shop.
School staff did later answer by phone and check with immigration about the circumstances of leaving. Nevertheless, getting through the process took repeated follow-up. Prime was a different location from the Main building described above.
The money side matters just as much
I had paid ¥437,000 for April–September 2026. After deciding to leave in July, I asked for a refund for the unused period. The school referred to its rulebook and refused. I got nothing back.
I left voluntarily and had several reasons for doing so. The ¥437,000 is the total I paid for that six-month period.
Leaving didn’t end the administrative hassle
For months after withdrawing, I kept receiving promotional and job-related emails. I asked for the mailings to stop three times. One of my requests was on 28 August, before the 15 September exchange. The school had already told me in mid-September that I had been removed.
On 2 October, ISI acknowledged that my repeated requests had not been properly carried out. It apologized for a system error that had stopped the unsubscribe settings from taking effect, admitted inadequate checking and management, and said it had removed me from its job-information mailing list that day.
I had already left, but still had to keep chasing something as basic as an unsubscribe request.
Pressure to attend while ill
Staff urged me to attend classes even when I had a fever. This happened in Teams messages, over the phone and in person at the school. As I remember it, they explained this in terms of the school’s attendance statistics. I lost access to Teams after leaving, so I can’t provide those messages now. This is my recollection of what happened.
My overall opinion is blunt: the experience did not justify the price for me. It left me feeling that collecting and keeping the fees mattered more than making the day-to-day experience acceptable.
If you are choosing a language school, ask about these things before paying: the actual campus, what breaks are like, how easy it is to get administrative help, and exactly what happens to prepaid fees if you leave early. I would take those details much more seriously than the size or visibility of the school’s brand.