Study in Japan

We are adding Japan to the catalogue university by university. Until the programmes are on the finder, a counsellor shortlists for you by hand — the same forty-five minutes, the same honest reading of your marksheets, and no charge.

Who gets in

16 years of education (a 4-year Bachelor) for a Master's.

A Certificate of Eligibility from Immigration comes before the visa; most admissions start with a supervisor.

Backlogs. Assessed case by case.

Tests you need

• IELTS 6.0-6.5 or TOEFL iBT 80 for English-taught programmes
• JLPT N2 for Japanese-taught programmes

What it costs

Tuition plus living costs for the first year. Budget around ₹90,000 a month for living costs.

Documents

• Passport
• Marksheets
• IELTS/JLPT
• Admission letter
• Certificate of Eligibility
• Bank statements

Why Japan

Japan has the third-largest economy in the world, an ageing population, and a declared shortage of engineers — and it has spent a decade opening its universities to international students. The University of Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Tohoku, Tokyo Tech and Nagoya are world-class, and more than a thousand programmes are now taught in English.

Fees are moderate: national universities charge around ¥535,000 a year, roughly ₹3 lakh, for every student regardless of nationality. The MEXT scholarship and university scholarships are real and are won by Indian students every year.

Robotics, materials, automotive, electronics, AI and game development are the fields Japan leads, and where a Japanese Master's opens doors that nothing else does.

Life in Japan

Tokyo is expensive; Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Sendai and Sapporo are considerably less. University housing is cheap where it exists. Budget ₹80,000 to ₹1.1 lakh a month depending on the city.

The country is safe, orderly and welcoming to students, and the language barrier is the real hurdle. Japanese is not required for an English-taught degree; it is required for almost everything else, and universities teach it free.

Intakes

• April — the traditional Japanese academic year. Most programmes.
• September / October — the international intake. Most English-taught programmes, and the one Indian students usually take.

Language and requirements

• English-taught programmes — IELTS 6.0 to 6.5 or TOEFL iBT 80
• Japanese-taught programmes — JLPT N2, sometimes N1
• Degree — 16 years of education for a Master's; a 3-year Bachelor's needs a bridge or is refused, university by university
• Research proposal and a supervisor — most graduate admissions at national universities start with a professor agreeing to take you

The visa

The university applies to Japanese Immigration for a Certificate of Eligibility on your behalf. With the CoE, the student visa itself is issued by the Japanese consulate in a week or two.

• Admission letter
• Certificate of Eligibility (CoE)
• Proof of funds for tuition and the first year
• Passport, photographs and academic records

After you graduate

Graduates can switch to a Designated Activities visa for up to a year to look for work, and Japan's Engineer / Specialist in Humanities work visa follows a job offer with few obstacles for a graduate of a Japanese university. Japanese to N2 is what makes the difference in that search.

Questions we are actually asked

Talk to a counsellor about Japan