Brighton College Signs Osaka Deal to Open Japan Campus in 2028

Brighton College signed a formal partnership agreement with Kansai Gaidai University Educational Foundation on 21 October, committing to open a campus in Hirakata, a city in the greater Osaka area, for September 2028. According to TES, the deal makes Brighton College the first British school group to open a campus in Osaka Prefecture and Brighton's first presence anywhere in Japan.

The school will be called Brighton College Kansai Gaidai and will open in two stages. A Prep School covering Years 1 to 6 is planned for September 2028, housed in the International Communication Centre on the university's Nakamiya Campus, with capacity for 432 pupils across three classes per year group. A Senior School and Sixth Form covering Years 7 to 13, with capacity for 672 pupils, is planned to follow in September 2029 on Kansai Gaidai's separate Gakkentoshi Campus.

Curriculum and boarding

Brighton College plans to bring its own inquiry-based primary curriculum to Osaka, with STEAM education and presentation skills built into every year group. Secondary students will study for IGCSEs, and the Sixth Form will offer A Levels, making the school a conventional British pathway from age five to eighteen. The school will admit both day pupils and boarders, with the boarding provision designed to draw students from across the Kansai region and from other parts of Asia.

Brighton College International CEO Graham Outon and Kansai Gaidai University President Eiko Tanimoto signed the partnership at a ceremony held on the Nakamiya Campus. Richard Cairns, CEO and principal of Brighton College, noted that the Kansai region, home to nearly 22 million people, offered a substantial local market alongside demand from boarding students across Asia.

A university as operating partner

The involvement of a university foundation as the operating partner is unusual. Kansai Gaidai has run international exchange programmes for decades and brings existing campus infrastructure, bilingual administrative capacity, and established relationships with overseas universities. That combination gives Brighton College a faster route to operational credibility than working with a purely commercial partner, though it also means the school's management structure will differ from Brighton's usual model in other Asian markets.

Brighton College already operates campuses in Singapore, Vietnam, and several markets across Asia and the Middle East. The Osaka deal extends a pattern that has accelerated through 2026, with established British school brands moving into Japanese cities beyond Tokyo for the first time, drawn by growing demand from local affluent families and by Japanese government interest in bringing international curricula into the mainstream of the country's education system.