Vancouver Japanese Language School, Language school in Japantown, Vancouver, Canada

Vancouver Japanese Language School occupies a heritage building at 475 Alexander Street in Japantown, founded on 12 January 1906 as the Vancouver Japanese Citizens' School. It is the oldest Japanese language school in Canada and was named a National Historic Site on 20 June 2019. Classes resumed in the building in 1953 after a wartime closure.

The school was established in 1906 with support from a Japanese diplomat to serve the local Japanese community. After World War II and a period of forced displacement, the building was returned to its original Japanese-Canadian owners, which was an unusual outcome during that era.

The school's name changed in 1919 from Vancouver Kyoritsu Nihon Kokumin Gakko to the Japanese Language School, when general subjects were dropped and pupils attended Canadian public schools while learning Japanese here. Its building at 475 Alexander Street is a symbol of the Japanese-Canadian community and of the internment.

The school stands at 475 Alexander Street in Japantown, near the Powell Street corridor of shops and the Vancouver Buddhist Church, where classes were held from 1952 to 1953. The building is a heritage site viewed from the street; the school itself is a working institution, so visits depend on its class calendar rather than tourist hours.

In 2019 the school was named a National Historic Site partly because it is a rare documented case of property returned to Japanese-Canadians after the internment of the 1940s. The designation also cites its status as the oldest and largest Japanese language school in Canada.