The Best Tokyo Summer Camps to Keep Your Kids Busy, Curious, and Off the Sofa

The BCCJ is pleased to share this article from Rugby School Japan. If a summer camp is part of your family's plans this year, we invite you to explore a thoughtfully curated selection of programmes taking place across Tokyo.

Summer in Tokyo is long, hot, and if you are a parent staring down weeks and weeks of school holidays, it is surprisingly hard to plan.

Between juggling work, the sweltering humidity, and a child who has declared boredom by 9am on day 1, the search for something genuinely worthwhile can feel overwhelming.  You want more than babysitting dressed up as an activity. You want your child to come home having learned something, made real friends, and be begging to go back!

The good news is that Tokyo's summer camp scene has grown dramatically in recent years. Whether your child is five or seventeen, a coding obsessive or a natural storyteller, there is a programme built for everyone.

In this guide, we have rounded up the best summer camps running across Tokyo this summer. We will tell you exactly who each camp suits, and what makes it stand out, in hopes that you can spend less time researching and more time actually enjoying summer with your children.

1. Rugby School Japan Residential Summer Camp - A Taster of British Boarding school education

RSJ's residential camp embraces the idea that children learn best when they're active and discovering independently, and being exposed to a diversity of activities to enable individual interests to blossom.

Each morning, RSJ's own specialist British teachers lead sessions across English, science, and humanities. These are not lectures, but active, inquiry-led projects that ask children to think independently, collaborate, and express themselves with confidence.

Afternoons are when RSJ’s Whole Person philosophy is in full swing; campers will rotate between sports and music sessions. Alongside enjoying Discovery sessions, expert-led cultural activities on campus, and a trip to the Warner Bros. Harry Potter Studio Tour in Tokyo, a week's highlight for many campers.

Campers will stay in RSJ's boarding houses under the care of RSJ’s specialist pastoral staff. Evenings are structured but relaxed, with table tennis, baking, games nights, and limited device time. This structure gives campers a genuine chance to decompress and build friendships organically.

The week includes five nights' accommodation, teaching by specialist British teachers, support from RSJ's pastoral team around the clock, nutritious meals, and a trip to Harry Potter Studios.

● Ages: 10–14
● Dates: 28 June – 3 July 2026
● Location: Kashiwanoha, ~30 mins from central Tokyo

Find out more and reserve a place, click here.

2. Tokyo Kids Write

Most children love stories, invent elaborate games, or talk in vivid detail about things that happened to them. Creativity exudes during childhood, but put them in front of a blank page and call it writing, and they, too, experience 'writer's block'. This camp is specifically designed to help children unleash their written imagination.

During this writing camp, groups are kept deliberately small to ensure every child gets real attention and feedback. This camp is structured around pitching ideas, collaborating, and revisiting. Campers will be working towards two culminating writing pieces by the end of the programme.

What makes the camp format genuinely interesting is the variety of writing styles on offer: drama and playwriting, food writing and feasts. Most children will leave having written in forms they likely had not tried before. Each four-day block features entirely new material, meaning children who attend multiple blocks never repeat themselves.

● Ages: 8–15
● Dates: Courses running through July and August 2026
● Location: Tree of Life Language & Creative Arts Center, Tokyo

Find out more and register here.

3. United School of Tokyo Summer Programme

One of the quieter frustrations of summer camp searching is finding something that actually matches your child's interests. This programme sidesteps that problem entirely with six weekly themes running back to back, each one a self-contained experience, enabling parents to choose a camp based on what their child genuinely cares about.

The themes across the summer span Health and Fitness, Astronomy and Space, Science and Discovery, History and Culture, Gardening and Nature, and Environment and Sustainability. Each week blends the theme through literacy sessions, science and social studies projects, arts, and sport; so children are not just reading about Nature, they are making things, building things, and moving. Each week closes with a field trip connected to the weekly theme, giving every topic a real-world landing point.

Class sizes are capped at 16, with literacy groups divided further by academic level. Families can book a single week or combine several, making this one of the more flexible options in this guide.

● Ages: 3 –12 Years
● Dates: 29 June – 7 August 2026 (6 Weeks available)
● Location: United School of Tokyo

Find out more and register here.

4. Rugby School Japan’s Football Summer Camp

This football camp grasps the specialisms of both Liverpool Football Club’s International Academy Japan coaches and Rugby School Japan’s pastoral staff to deliver a programme that pushes children as footballers, but focuses on campers leaving more confident, communicative, and independent.

Over three days at RSJ's Kashiwanoha campus, children aged 10–14 will train with Liverpool FC-accredited coaches following the curriculum behind one of the world's most respected youth football development academies. That matters most because Liverpool's methodology is not built around winning; it is built around the habits and qualities that help young people thrive: decision-making under pressure, resilience when things do not go to plan, and the ability to read a situation and respond well.

As a bonus, daily English classes are included, a meaningful extra that most sports camps do not offer, and one that makes the camp more transformative for your children.

● Ages: 10–14
● Dates: 11–13 August 2026
● Location: RSJ’s Kashiwanoha campus, 30 mins from central Tokyo 

Find out more and reserve a place at Rugby School Japan’s Summer Football Camp.

5. Tokyo Coding Club: Code Quest

In a world of increasing technology, most children are already spending time in front of screens. The question parents are increasingly concerned about is whether that time is productive and whether their child is learning. Code Quest is designed to eliminate these concerns and support children in positively engaging with the technology they use.

During this five-day camp, children aged 5–12, who are split into age-appropriate groups, work through a project-based technology curriculum covering coding, robotics, AI, machine learning and digital design. The entire camp curriculum has been rebuilt for 2026, so there is no content that is being repeated.

The programme is structured around projects; at the end of each week, every child leaves having completed a hands-on project they have personally made. Ensuring campers leave with a sense of accomplishment and pride.

As a unique touch, there is also a shared Minecraft server running across all nine courses. This is a collaborative, safe and secure world that every camper can contribute to, which grows throughout the summer. In previous years, children attending multiple programmes have found it exciting watching their contributions evolve week by week.

Each week also includes a full-day and half-day Tokyo excursion such as RED Tokyo Tower and Miraikan.

● Ages: 5–12
● Dates: Multiple one-week courses between 15th of June and 28th of August. 

● Location: Nishimachi International School

Find out more and register for Code Quest 2026 here.

6. Japan Explorers: Mt. Fuji

There is something Tokyo simply can not offer: space, stillness, and the sight of Mount Fuji from the edge of a lake. For children who spend most of their summer in the city, this camp is a genuine change of scene.

Over five days and four nights at Lake Yamanakako, children aged 6–12 move through an itinerary that balances outdoor adventure, cultural depth, and classic camp fun (think toasting marshmallows!). The cultural programme is genuinely varied, including a visit to a ninja village, hands-on sushi making, tanabata craft workshops, and a child-friendly anime movie night.

Adventure days are equally loved; Fuji-Q Highland, stand-up paddleboarding on Lake Yamanakako, alongside quieter evenings of ramen dinners, ping pong, and board games. For families, this camp also prioritises convenience, including transport from central Tokyo.

● Ages: 6–12
● Dates: 13–17 July 2026
● Location: Lake Yamanakako, Mt. Fuji

Find out more and register here.

7. Film & Animation summer programme in Tokyo

Over the course of the programme, students aged 15–18 work through a hands-on film and animation curriculum taught by industry professionals, covering storyboarding, character design, 2D and 3D animation techniques, screenwriting, and the history of Japanese cinema. The final project is a short film or animation piece of their own, which gives the week genuine creative stakes rather than just a series of workshops to sit through.

The Ghibli Museum visit deserves a mention of its own. For students serious about animation, seeing Studio Ghibli's creative process up close - original storyboards, animation cells, behind-the-scenes exhibits it is the kind of experience that tends to further inspire their passion.

Evenings and weekends are equally busy and exciting with visits to baseball games, Shibuya Crossing, Harajuku, Asakusa, karaoke, giving students the breathing room to experience Tokyo as a teenager rather than a tourist.

● Ages: 15–18
● Dates: 20 July 2025 — 2 August 2025
● Location: University of Tokyo Campus

Find out more here.

8. Laurus International School of Science: real experiments and real science

Laurus hosts three distinct interactive science programmes running simultaneously under one roof, meaning siblings of different ages can often attend the same week without parents running two separate schedules.

For the youngest children (1.5–6), the Summer Camp is a play-based programme flexible enough to join for a single day. This is genuinely rare in Tokyo's summer camp landscape and worth knowing about for parents whose summer plans are still shifting.

Secondly, primary-age children (6–11) join the ‘Summer School’, an inquiry-led STEAM programme built around weekly expedition themes: food science, neuroscience, and island ecosystems. Each one is a self-contained week of real experiments, not worksheets, topped off with a field trip that brings the theme to life outside the classroom.

Finally, the Secondary aged-appropriate programme (11–15) is where Laurus earns its high credit. Subject specialists with genuine professional and academic backgrounds lead modules that push students to think at a level closer to university than school; from robotics challenges and space exploration to analogue photography and the chemistry of colour.

All three programmes are taught entirely in English, and flexible weekly enrolment means
families can book one week or several.

● Ages: 1.5–15 (three separate programmes by age group)
● Dates: Seven weeks (exact dates TBC)
● Location: Laurus International School of Science, Tokyo

Find out more here.