Virginia Villegas was delighted to be asked to return to Japan last year to assist the then head of Seisen International School in Yoga, Tokyo. "When Sister Concesa Martin was elected to the General Council in Rome, I was asked to take over as headmistress," she explains, warm, direct and very perceptive. "I went through a period of intensive thought and questioning before accepting. After all, I was relatively new, even though I had taught at the school years before."

Seisen (which means "pure spring") grew out a kindergarten started in 1949 for children of U.S. Air Force families. A year later, parents pleaded with the Catholic sisters running the tiny mission school in Yoyogi to add a first grade. It began with just four girls. Every fall the sisters said, right, but no more. Every fall there was a new intake. Now Seisen is the only international school in Japan where students can take three science subjects up to 12th grade.

The school moved to Gotanda in 1962, and then to Yoga in '73. "Now we have around 690 students and some 113 school staff. Last year we grew to 745 students, but numbers are falling again. Foreign companies are always coming and going due to the current economic situation."