Microsoft 365 Education: Japan’s reported April 2028 renewal date

Impress Watch reported that Microsoft Japan set April 1, 2028 as the threshold for applying Microsoft 365 Education changes to Japanese contract renewals and extensions. Microsoft’s general schedule applies the portfolio transition at an institution’s first renewal, extension or new agreement on or after January 1, 2028. The dates have different geographic scopes and contract triggers. Microsoft’s portfolio terms set out the general schedule.

For a wider look at the license lineup and storage changes, see our earlier Microsoft 365 Education overview.

The Japan date is a reported clarification

In a November 2026 update, Impress Watch reported that Microsoft Japan had clarified the Japanese threshold as renewals or extensions on or after April 1, 2028. Microsoft’s published general schedule instead names the institution’s first renewal, extension or new agreement on or after January 1, 2028. The Japan date is specific to renewals and extensions in Japan; it is not the US schedule.

A1 sales, retirement and pricing have separate triggers

The portfolio changes do not all share one effective date. Microsoft sets an earlier milestone for academic online-services pricing, a sales cutoff for Office 365 A1 and later retirement and portfolio-transition triggers.

An Office 365 A1 enrollment that began before the retirement date can continue through its term. At the end of that term, A1 cannot be renewed or extended. The pricing-policy milestone is separate: it applies to online services purchased through Academic Volume Licensing at an institution’s first qualifying renewal or extension on or after May 1, 2027.

Check each agreement’s renewal date against the specific change: online-services pricing, A1 sales and the broader portfolio transition have distinct triggers.

License assignments and storage depend on the user mix

Microsoft allows institutions to combine eligible editions across students and faculty and license only users who need a particular offer. That means a school does not have to assign one identical tier to every user, although each offer’s eligibility rules still apply.

A0 is a no-cost, student-only offer for eligible institutions with full paid faculty coverage on A2 or higher. Students must actively use Windows devices for educational purposes. A0 excludes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Teams, so it does not provide those services as a replacement for A1.

Storage remains a shared pool for the institution’s tenant. Microsoft says it will remove the existing 100 TB base allocation at the institution’s first renewal or extension on or after January 1, 2028; paid student and faculty licenses contribute different amounts to the pool.

These amounts are contributions to shared tenant storage, not separate personal quotas. A0 contributes no cloud storage.