Starting from the 2011-12 school year, English has become an official elementary school subject for the fifth and sixth grades (35 school periods of 45 minutes each per grade). However, at the elementary schools in Kin Town, English has been variously taught from kindergarten through sixth grade over the previous 11 years.

For a number of years the third and fourth grades in Kin have been studying English as one of the subjects included in their 'integrated study' periods or 'sogoteki na gakushuu'. Currently children have 15 English classes a year.

Kindergarten classes have English mostly bi-weekly, while for the first grade and second grade English is on a more ad hoc basis.

The overall aim of English lessons at Kin, Kagei and Nakagawa Elementary Schools in Kin Town is to give the children a fun and constructive introduction to learning English. A native-speaker English teacher is employed to work with the Japanese homeroom teachers to provide as much authentic English input as possible and give children a real reason to communicate in English.

For the upper grades the emphasis is on learning to communicate in English. During lessons children learn by playing games, singing songs, chanting, doing interviews and roleplays and various language learning activities. However, an important way to ensure that all children actually gain confidence using English is to include various English performances as part of lessons and as school events or as part of larger school events. Children get a chance to show what they can do and are motivated to learn more. During the 2011-12 school year the children at Kin Elementary school sang 'Tingalayo'; Nakagawa elementary school students sang 'Hey, let's go' the theme song from the animated film 'Totoro', and at Kagei Elementary students sang an original translation of the popular Japanese children's song about the endangered aye ayes, a species of lemur.