Hakuba International School is a new international boarding school (opened in 2022), located in the beautiful Hakuba Valley in the Japanese Alps. Our school is dedicated to answering the driving question: What kind of education enables people and the planet to flourish? Our focus is on personal and environmental well-being, combined with deeper learning methods to develop leaders who can solve the world’s most complex problems. 

We are an intentionally small school, serving 56 students in grades 7-11 during the 2025-26 school year, and adding one grade per year until 12th grade, reaching an eventual full size of 150 students. We call our faculty members guides, in the spirit of serving by a student’s side to create highly engaging learning adventures. For more about our school’s background and methods, please visit www.hakuba-is.jp.

Humanities Guide

• Personal Qualities: We’re looking for faculty who are excited about building a new school, ready for the startup experience, and passionate about a more holistic, humane approach to education. We believe learning is naturally fun and playful, and we try to live that way too. Our faculty are interested in co-designing curriculum with students and seek to build relationships with students characterised by high trust and agency. We offer faculty significant creative autonomy, so you can bring your gifts into action.
  
  
• Requirements: This is a full-time faculty role, focused primarily but not exclusively on high school-age students. We require at least 3 years of full-time Humanities (English or History/Social Science)  teaching experience at the high school level, and experience teaching or learning through projects is required. A driver's license and willingness to drive students in school vehicles are also required.  Experience in boarding schools, overnight summer camps, and outdoor camping is a major plus. Fluent English is required; Japanese language skills are not required.
  
  
• Teaching Philosophy & Curriculum: Our teaching style prioritises student voice and choice and is built on a project-based approach. All faculty are expected to develop curriculum. We are still in an active curriculum-design phase, bringing our own ideas alongside best practices from innovative schools around the world, while referencing curricula such as the IB, AP,  and Japanese MEXT standards, to form a set of learning objectives unique to our school. HIS is part of the Mastery Transcript Consortium, which applies a mastery learning approach to help each student develop a rich portfolio of their work. HIS is accredited by the Japanese government and is well into the process of seeking WASC international accreditation.
  
  
• Advisory: Every faculty member is also an advisor, responsible for leading a group of 6-8 students over multiple years, meeting in brief daily check-ins during the school week, as well as one extended session per week. We see the advisor role as equally important to any academic teaching and provide training and support to enable faculty to hone this skill. At heart, we aim to make advisory a ‘safe and brave’ space to help students make sense of life, feel a strong sense of belonging, and hone their social and emotional skills.
  
  
• Outdoor & Residential Elements. As a school with a major focus on outdoor education and environmental sustainability, we are looking for faculty who enjoy the outdoors and expect everyone to take part in several outdoor camping trips over the course of each school year. As a boarding school, we also aim to create connections between academic and residential life and ask all faculty to support the residential program with rotating residential duties and support in our dormitories. This support is on the order of one evening per week, and two weekends per academic term (12 weeks). 

Structure

• Compensation: Commensurate with experience.
  
  
• Benefits: Our benefits include a housing stipend, relocation stipend, annual home leave travel allowance, lunches on all academic days, a laptop, and many professional development opportunities (e.g., the Compassionate Systems Framework, Social-Emotional Learning, and others). All employees are also enrolled in the Japanese healthcare system, national pension system, and unemployment and workers’ compensation insurance.
  
  
• Safeguarding: HIS follows international standards for safe recruitment, meaning that we prioritise safeguarding and child protection in our hiring process. This includes multiple reference checks, a global background check, and a Staff Code of Conduct, which must be signed as a condition of employment, defining our safeguarding practices.
  
  
• Visas: We sponsor visas for candidates applying from outside of Japan, and our team hails from many countries around the world. Learn more here!
  
  
• Timing: The start date for this role is January 2026, or March 2026, or possibly early August 2026, depending on the candidate. We offer a two-year contract for new faculty. Interviews for this opening will take place on a rolling basis, and we will make a hire as soon as the right candidate is identified. Our school year follows a September-through-June calendar (see 2025-26 academic calendar here).

About Hakuba International School

Hakuba International School is a new international boarding school (opened in 2022), located in the beautiful Hakuba Valley in the Japanese Alps. Our school is dedicated to answering the driving question: What kind of education enables people and the planet to flourish? Our focus is on personal and environmental well-being, combined with deeper learning methods to develop leaders who can solve the world’s most complex problems. We are an intentionally small school, serving approximately 70 students in grades 7-12 during the 2026-27 school year, gradually growing toward our eventual full size of 150 students. We call our faculty members guides, in the spirit of serving by a student’s side to create highly engaging learning adventures. For more about our school’s background and methods, please visit www.hakuba-is.jp.

Connections working at Hakuba International School