Study in Japan: Admission, Cost, Visa and Scholarships (2027)

Japan's academic year runs from April to March, and April is still when the large majority of Japanese-taught bachelor's and master's programmes admit new students. Alongside this, a growing number of national universities run English-taught bachelor's programmes reserved for international applicants, admitting once a year in September or October instead, so new students arrive on a calendar closer to the one used in Europe and North America. Graduate admission is more fragmented: most Japanese universities let each graduate school or department set its own deadline, testing method and required documents rather than following one university-wide calendar, and international applicants are often expected to contact a prospective supervisor and secure informal agreement before formally applying.

Two national examinations sit behind most Japanese-taught admission. The Examination for Japanese University Admission for International Students (EJU) tests Japanese language ability plus a choice of science, mathematics and a combined Japan-and-the-world paper, and is held twice a year, in June and November, both inside Japan and at test centres abroad; most Japanese universities that admit international students by the standard route use EJU scores as part of their decision, and some offer pre-arrival admission based on EJU and school results alone, without a campus visit. The Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) is a separate five-level test of general Japanese ability, held in July and December, that many programmes also ask for. Applicants to English-taught programmes generally skip both and instead submit an English test such as IELTS or TOEFL iBT, commonly around IELTS 6.0 to 6.5 or TOEFL iBT 80, though several programmes state no fixed minimum and instead publish a typical range achieved by admitted students, or waive the test for applicants whose prior education was taught in English.

Tuition works differently from most study destinations international students compare Japan against: national and public universities charge one standard fee to Japanese and international students alike, commonly JPY 535,800 a year plus a JPY 282,000 admission fee paid once at enrolment, though this project's own research found that some universities, including the University of Tokyo and Institute of Science Tokyo, now charge more than this standard rate for their undergraduate programmes. Private universities set their own fees, typically higher and varying widely by field. Applicants also pay a non-refundable entrance examination fee, commonly JPY 17,000 for a bachelor's application and JPY 30,000 for a graduate application, again regardless of nationality.

Once admitted, international students from outside Japan apply for a Certificate of Eligibility through their university, then use it to apply for a student visa at a Japanese embassy or consulate before travelling. During their studies they can apply for permission to work part time, capped at 28 hours a week in term time (up to 40 hours in some long vacation periods), in most kinds of job other than the adult entertainment and gambling industries. After graduating, a student can change to a Designated Activities status to keep looking for a job in Japan, for up to a year in total, before needing a work visa. Funding comes mainly from the Japanese government's own MEXT scholarship, JASSO scholarships and exchange schemes, and each university's own waivers, rather than from one single national scholarship a student applies to directly.