ESMOD Tokyo ends recruitment for its full-time courses — 42 years after opening

ESMOD was founded in Paris in 1841 as the world's first fashion school, and its Tokyo campus opened in 1984 — the first of what is now 18 campuses in 12 countries. From Ebisu it trained a generation of Japanese designers, and its flagship offering was the 2–3 year daytime curriculum: the Comprehensive Course, the Paris Study Abroad Course and the English Course.

On 31 July 2026 it emerged that new recruitment for all of those daytime courses has been stopped. The reason was stated plainly: in recent years the school had struggled to recruit students, with Japan's shrinking population weighing on applications. Instead, the school has spent 2026 launching short courses of one day to six months, charging ¥4,000–5,000 for workshops that were previously free, and opened a two-session Summer School in August.

General manager Otani's pitch: people who dream of becoming designers can now test the path cheaply and briefly. The weak yen is helping — overseas enrolments are surging because tuition 'feels like half price' to foreign students. A one-year professional course is planned for 2027, and the CNAM-affiliated bachelor course continues. The degree-length education that built the school's name no longer recruits.