Updated as of the 2025-2026 application cycle.
Congratulations on Passing the Embassy’s Primary Screening!
If you are reading this article, I assume you have passed the primary screening (or are preparing to pass soon). That’s a tremendous step! Most applicants do not make it this far.
In fact, almost all applicants who pass the Primary Screening and get at least one Letter of Provisional Acceptance (LoPA) from a university in Japan receive the MEXT Scholarship.
At this point in the application process, there are no more competitive screenings. All that remains is to find a university and professor that is willing to accept you in Japan.
Unfortunately, while this used to be an easy step in the past, I have heard of more and more applicants struggle to find a professor in Japan post-pandemic. Even though the screening is no longer competitive, professors will be selective about the students they want in their labs or as their advisees, so it is important that your research proposal offer some benefit to them.
There are a few major reasons for rejection at this stage, and several of them are avoidable. By avoiding the biggest problems you can focus on universities and professors where you have a better chance of success.
So, what do you need to know about getting that letter of acceptance? Let’s get started.
Note: This article is based on the ongoing application process in summer 2025
If you are applying in 2025 for the MEXT Scholarship to begin in 2026, then this article is for you. If you are reading in a future year, be aware that the deadlines below will have changed and there could be other changes to the requirements, too, but the general idea should remain the same!
Only applicants for the MEXT Scholarship for Research Students (Graduate Students) are required to obtain Letters of Provisional Acceptance.
How to Fail to Get a Letter of Provisional Acceptance
Let’s get this out of the way first: There are three avoidable ways to get rejected by a university. When I processed Letter of Provisional Acceptance applications at a major university, almost every LoPA rejection I saw was for one of these causes.
- Missing the Deadline: As of the 2025/2026 Embassy Recommended MEXT Scholarship Application Cycle (applying in 2025), the deadline to apply to universities for a LoPA is Monday, September 1, 2025 (Japan time). If you do not submit your application by that time, they won’t even look at it. Be aware of time differences and don’t wait until the last minute. An application that arrives in the Japanese university’s inbox at 00:05 am on September 2 will be rejected, even if it was still September 1 where you are.
You also want to avoid the possibility that your email doesn’t arrive at all because it is too large or the university’s inbox is full. Submit it as early as you can!
- Not Having the Required Language Ability: Every year I hear about applicants who have zero Japanese language ability applying to programs that are taught only in Japanese. Of course, universities reject all of them! You need to have the requisite language ability as of the time you apply for the LoPA or you don’t have a chance.
While MEXT offers a 1-semester, intensive Japanese language program on arrival for scholarship recipients, it is not supposed to teach you academic Japanese or give you enough ability to study for your degree in the language. It teaches Japanese for surviving day-to-day life. So do not think that you can apply to a Japanese-taught program and brush up on your language skills later.
This is an easily avoidable problem if you followed my advice in my article about how to find universities and professors in Japan.
- Applying to a University Where No Professor Can Supervise Your Research: This was probably the single-most common reason for rejections at my former university. The rejection letters would say something like, “Great student, great research plan, but we don’t have anyone doing research in that field that can supervise you.”
This is mostly avoidable if you follow the advice in the article in the bullet above and my book, How to Find Your Best Degree Program and Advisor for the MEXT Scholarship. The only part that is beyond your control is retirements and personnel changes. However, if you get in contact with the professors in advance, you can also avoid those personnel problems.
In addition to the those ways to fail, there are some other challenges you may face.
The Retiring Professor Problem
In the past, taking care of those three easy items was enough. But post-pandemic, Japanese higher education has hit a period of mass professor retirements. That, in turn, has made it hard for MEXT Scholars to find an advisor in Japan. (It’s the reason I put “mostly” in italics in the list above.) If the only professor researching in your field at the university you want to apply to is set to retire, then there’s a high chance they won’t be able to accept you. When I surveyed readers about their Placement Preference Form application experience in 2023, two of the three most common reasons for rejection were: “Professor cannot accept you (pending retirement, etc.)” and “No professor available to supervise your research.” (That amounts to the same thing if you researched ahead of time and found there was a professor!)
Mandatory retirement ages exist across all Japanese professions, though for university faculty members, it can vary slightly from university to university. In most cases, it is around 65, give or take a couple of years. Professors likely will not take on new advisees if they plan to retire before the advisee would graduate. So, for your application, you want to avoid applying to professors who are at or over age 60. Of course, you probably won’t find the professor’s age or date of birth listed anywhere publicly, but you should be able to find the year that they earned their PhD from their faculty profile. As a rule of thumb, if it has been 30 years since the professor earned their PhD, you should proceed with caution. If it has been 35 years or more, don’t even consider that professor.
(In my book How to Find Your Best Degree Program and Advisor for the MEXT Scholarship, I explain why a mid-career professor with an international mindset is probably the best target for an advisor.)
Full Labs
The other of the top three common reasons for rejection was that the professor’s lab was full. Unfortunately, there’s no real way to foresee and avoid this problem other than networking or trial and error. This is why it is beneficial to have multiple back-up options and contact professors as soon as possible!
Choosing Your Universities
You should have selected up to three universities to apply to before submitting your application to the Embassy. If not, I have another guide to help you locate universities and professors in your field of study.
If you have already been in contact with the professors for networking, that is to your advantage. But even if you have tried to contact the professors and gotten no response, do not let that stop you from trying again now. Many universities have a policy to not respond to MEXT Scholarship applicants until after they have passed the Primary Screening. It’s nothing personal.
Changing the Universities on Your Placement Preference Form
If you have a list of universities and professors but want to change it from the information you entered in the Placement Preference Form before the Primary Screening, that should still be possible. You might want to change the universities on this form if you found a better university or professor after submitting your Placement Preference Form, or if any of the universities on your list rejects your application and you need an alternative.
To check the rules about changing the universities on your list, contact the Japanese embassy or consulate where you applied for more details on their policies. Usually, you will submit the Placement Preference Form again after acquiring the Letters of Provisional Acceptance and when you do, you can only include universities that have offered you a LoPA or, at least, have not rejected your application. Most applicants must change the list based on results from the universities.
Deadlines
Applying to Universities for Letters of Provisional Acceptance
The deadline to contact universities to request a Letter of Provisional Acceptance for the 2025/2026 scholarship application cycle is Monday, September 1, 2025 Japan Time. MEXT has instructed all universities in Japan that they are to refuse any applicant who contacts them on or after September 2nd. Keep in mind that Japan is ahead of most countries in terms of time zones. Do not wait until the last day! An emailed application sent on the 1st in your time zone that arrives after midnight in Japan will be rejected.
Email Delivery Problems
If you send your application by email, that message is likely to have several large attachments, so your application email might not be delivered. It could also get filtered as spam, be blocked because it is too large, or it could be rejected because the recipient’s email inbox is too full to accept it. If that happens, you might never know that your application didn’t arrive.
When applying by email, I recommend sending two emails: The first one with no attachments that states your intent to apply and informs the university/professor that you will send a follow-up email immediately with the required documents attached, and the second one with the actual application materials attached. That way, even if the attachment email doesn’t get through, the first message should arrive and they will know that you have tried to apply. Even if your email with the attachments does not arrive, they may be flexible and allow you to resend the documents that were blocked.
Unless the university instructs you otherwise, you should scan all of your application documents as one single PDF file and attach that. There are plenty of option for computer and smartphone software and apps that will allow you to scan and combine multiple documents into a single pdf file. Do NOT submit documents in a compressed file format, such as a zip file. Some universities will refuse to open compressed files because they are a security risk.
Recently, I have seen applicants try to send documents with a Google Drive download link to avoid heavy attachments. If you do so, make sure you set the permissions so that anyone with the link can access the files. Do not limit access to specific email addresses. The receiving email address might be a shared address that automatically distributes to other emails, etc., so if you limit the addresses, the person who needs to process your application might not be able to access it.
How Long Does it Take to Get a Letter of Provisional Acceptance?
September 1, 2025 is your deadline to contact the universities. It is not the deadline for universities to issue the Letter of Provisional Acceptance. MEXT specifically says that applicants must not urge universities to issue letters quickly.
MEXT has instructed universities to reply to applicants with the final results within approximately one month of receiving the request. This is not an immediate process and you should not expect instant results. Unless the university required you to get permission from a professor in advance, your application would first need to be reviewed by an individual professor in your field, who will determine if they can accept you. Then, it would have to be approved at a committee meeting at the department and/or graduate school level. The problem is that August and most of September are the summer vacation months at most Japanese universities, so some professors are not at the university, may not be reviewing their email as often, and there are no committee meetings until the semester starts up again. So, this naturally causes the process to go slowly.
If it takes a long time to get a response from the university, do not take that as a bad sign. It is not a judgement about your application or the university “ghosting” you. It is just a slow process with a lot of waiting.
Make sure you apply to the university and give them enough time (at least a month) to process it, make their decision, and issue the letter. Do not contact the university with demands if they don’t send you a letter right away. That will not get you a positive response. However, if a month has passed since you contacted the university and you have not heard from them, or if your deadline to submit the Letter of Provisional Acceptance to your embassy/consulate is approaching, then it is OK to contact them and politely ask about the status.
Keep in mind that it might take a few days before universities can get to your email. Universities will also be extremely busy processing applications around the deadline, so expect delays in replies. It is also common for universities to not acknowledge receipt of your application and not send any reply until they have made their final decision.
Submitting Letters of Provisional Acceptance to Your Embassy or Consulate
Each embassy or consulate will set the deadline for you to submit your Letters of Acceptance and final Placement Preference Form, so please refer to the embassy or consulate where you applied for their submission deadlines.
How Many Universities to Contact
You may contact a maximum of two universities at one time to request a Letter of Provisional Acceptance. This is a change from the past, when you could have three or more Letters of Acceptance, so if you see any articles saying that three or four letters are OK, that information is out of date!
Even though you will probably have three universities in your Placement Preference Form, you can still only contact two at one time. If one of the two universities you contact rejects your application and it is still before the deadline, then you can contact an alternate, but you should never have more than two active or complete applications and you should not get more than two Letters of Provisional Acceptance.
If you apply to a university and they don’t get back to you, you might feel nervous and be tempted to contact a third university as a back-up. If you do so, be sure to contact the university that you are waiting on first to cancel your application to them. You do not want to take the chance that you end up having three letters and violating MEXT’s rules.
What Happens if You Get More Than Two Letters
If you paid attention to the instructions, this should never happen. But if you didn’t and you only realize after receiving the letters that you were only allowed to have two, then contact the embassy and tell them what happened. They will give you further instructions.
But it’s actually not in your favor to have more than two. Having more Letters of Provisional Acceptance does not increase your chances of success. As long as you have one from your first-choice university, you should be fine in almost all cases.
How to Apply for a Letter of Provisional Acceptance
MEXT’s instructions say to contact the division of international student affairs at the university where you intend to apply, first. However, I recommend that your first step should be to check the university’s website to see if they have instructions posted for Embassy-Recommended MEXT Scholarship applicants. The best way I have found to do this is to search Google for your university name and the words “Embassy MEXT”. For example, “University of Tokyo Embassy MEXT.” Then, read the web page to find the instruction for applying for a Letter of Provisional Acceptance.
You may find that some universities ask you to contact a faculty member as part of your application. In that case, follow the university’s instructions.
I tried this method for 7 top universities and in almost every case, the top Google result was the page with the instructions on how to apply for a letter of acceptance.
Despite MEXT’s instructions that applicants should contact the international offices at their target universities, you can see from the list below that the actual practice can vary significantly from university to university.
Just for reference, the universities I tried (June 2024) and their results were:
- University of Tokyo: Contact the department office (not your prospective advisor).
- Tohoku University: Email the address provided by the embassy/consulate. Contacting professors directly without following the procedure is not permitted.
- Kyoto University: Contact the professor directly, or through the administrative office of the graduate school/research institute, or submit an online application to the Admissions Assistance Office.
- Osaka University: Upload application documents through their online system. (Note: The system may require you to identify or contact a prospective advisor in advance.)
- Waseda University: Complete their online form and upload the documents directly. It is not necessary to contact your desired supervisor beforehand.
- Keio University: Contact your desired advisor for informal acceptance, then complete their online form and upload the documents directly.
*This was the only university where I could not find the instructions using the Google method above and had to dig around their website for the information. Keio always has to be difficult about everything. - Ritsumeikan University: Submit application to the International Center by email (including the university’s own survey form). You must select a desired professor but do not need to contact them.
If the university does not offer specific instructions on their website, your embassy or consulate should have a list of staff members responsible for accepting MEXT scholarship applications at various Japanese universities. If you already know which universities you want to contact (see my article on how to identify the best Japanese universities and professors for your field of study), then the embassy staff may be able to help you.
How to Submit Your Application
The website with the Letter of Provisional Acceptance application procedures for your university should have a list of required documents. Always follow the directions from the university instead of the instructions below or instructions from the embassy. The information I have provided below is from the MEXT guidelines, so it is more general.
You will send all of your application documents by email to the university or upload them directly, depending on the university’s instructions. MEXT also says that you can send the documents by post if you have trouble submitting them electronically, but in that case, make sure that you contact the university first and communicate with them about your submission plan. You would have to submit your application even earlier in this case, since the mailed documents would need to arrive at the university before the deadline.
When sending your documents by email, I recommend you do not attach them all to your first message. Your application document scans may have a very large file size and many university email accounts in Japan have size limits or attachment size limits. If your attachments exceed the limit, your mail will not be delivered and the university might never know that you tried to apply!
Before sending your documents, reach out to the office or professor you have identified. Let them know you plan to apply and that you will send your application documents in a subsequent email. You do not need to wait for a reply to your first message.
What to Send
I recommend you scan all of your documents together in a single pdf file. This is easy enough to do if you have a scanner available and you can even scan documents as a pdf from a smartphone app. NEVER send your documents as individual jpeg files for each page. That makes it very difficult for the university to process your application and will put them in a bad mood before they even begin to review the contents of your file. You should also never send your application documents as a compressed file, such as a zip file. Universities may be unable to open those files for security reasons.
At a minimum, you are required to send the university the documents below. These should be the documents that you submitted to the embassy and had returned to you after the primary screening and should be stamped by the embassy. You cannot replace the contents of these forms between submitting them to the embassy and sending them to universities.
- Application Form
- Field of Study and Research Program Plan
- Academic transcript for all academic year of university attended
- Certificate of graduation or degree certificate of the university attended
- Recommendation letter from the president/dean or the academic advisor at the current or last university attended
- Medical Certificate
- Abstracts of theses (Only if submitted to the diplomatic mission)
- Certificate of language proficiency (Only if submitted to the diplomatic mission*)
- Recommendation letter from the present employer (Only if submitted to the diplomatic mission)
- Photograph(s) showing applicant’s own works of art or a digitally recorded media of musical performance (only if submitted to the diplomatic mission)
- Copy of a passing Certificate of the First Screening issued by the diplomatic mission
*Universities will sometimes require you to submit proof of language proficiency even if you did not submit it to the embassy during the primary screening. In that case, follow the university’s instructions.
Note that the Placement Preference Form is not on that list! Per the application guidelines, you are not to send that document to the universities. MEXT has instructed Universities they cannot request it from you.
If a university requests that you send the Placement Preference Form, politely tell them that your instructions from MEXT were that you are not to submit it to universities. You can send them a link to the application guidelines in Japanese saying so as well. Here is that link:
https://www.studyinjapan.go.jp/en/smap-stopj-applications-research.html
The university may also ask you to submit additional documentation. As long as it is not the Placement Preference Form, then you are required to submit it. That includes submitting language proficiency certificates, documents unique to the university, etc., even if you did not submit them to the embassy or consulate. For example, some universities may require you to submit JLPT scores, TOEFL scores, or even GRE scores, even though you did not submit them to the embassy.
For a detailed explanation of the required documents, please see my article about How to Apply for the Embassy-Recommended MEXT Scholarship.
Receiving Your Letter of Provisional Acceptance
There are a few things you will want to pay particular attention to in your Letter of Provisional Acceptance once you receive it.
Arrival Date
The first is your date of arrival. In the Application Form, you wrote whether you prefer to arrive in the April or September/October semester. When the university issues your Letter of Provisional Acceptance, it will include their decision about when you should arrive. In principle, it is not possible to change that date from what is written in the Letter of Provisional Acceptance, so make sure the date in that letter works for you.
Enrollment Status
The second thing to check is your status. In your application form, you filled in whether you wanted to arrive as a research student or a degree-seeking student (in the master’s, doctoral, or professional program).
In order for the university to issue you a Letter of Provisional Acceptance as a degree-seeking student, you would have to pass their entrance examination prior to them issuing the letter. Some universities will consider a screening of your application documents to be a sufficient entrance exam. But if they do not, the chances are high that you would not have passed their exam yet. In that case, the university would issue you a letter of an acceptance as a research student.
This can change!
If your Letter of Provisional Acceptance lists you as a “Research Student”, the university will have 2 opportunities later to “upgrade” you to a degree-seeking student before your arrival:
- During the placement phase: After you submit your Letters of Provisional Acceptance and final Placement Preference Form to the Embassy, MEXT will conduct a secondary screening of your application. After that secondary screening, MEXT will contact the universities on your Placement Preference Form one-by-one to ask them to accept you. If you have passed the university’s entrance exam in the meantime, then when the university replies to MEXT to confirm that they will accept you, they can change your status to degree-seeking student.
- Upon arrival in Japan: If the university agrees to accept your placement as a research student, but you then pass their entrance exam prior to arriving in Japan, then the university can send a notice of change of status and change of scholarship payment period to MEXT and you could to start as a degree-seeking student immediately on arrival in Japan.
If you end up arriving in Japan and starting as a research student, there is no problem with that course of action, either. In fact, that’s what I recommend in most cases. You will take the entrance exam while in Japan and apply for an extension of your scholarship to cover the full degree program. Starting as a research student will give you an extra semester (or more) to get used to studying in Japan and to take courses and starting your research.
Japanese Language Preparatory Education
The final thing to check is whether the university plans to assign you to the Japanese language program. Usually, they will send you to that program if you are studying in English and need to learn some basic Japanese to survive daily life. If your Japanese is already good enough that you can study for a degree in Japanese, you will most likely not join the Japanese language program.
If you are starting in the Japanese language preparatory education program, you will be a research student (non-degree student) for the duration of that program, even if you applied to start directly with the degree program.
I recommend you make a copy of each of your Letters of Provisional Acceptance prior to submitting them, so that you can refer to the contents later.
Submitting Your Letters of Provisional Acceptance and Placement Preference Form to the Embassy
When to Submit
MEXT requires that you turn in every Letter of Provisional Acceptance that you receive to the Embassy and that you list those universities in your placement preference form. It used to not be mandatory, so you might see comments from past students that they applied for more Letters than they turned in at the end. That is no longer allowed. Submitting fewer letters would constitute lying on your application and could result in your being disqualified if discovered later.
Each embassy or consulate controls its own deadline for when you should submit Letters of Provisional Acceptance, so be sure to check with them. MEXT has asked universities to return letters of acceptance within one month of the application, so the embassies’ deadlines should not be earlier than that, but there are always miscommunications between the two.
*In the past, MEXT required universities to produce Letters of Acceptance within a month. This is no longer a requirement, but your local embassy might think that it is and set their deadline accordingly. If your embassy has given you a deadline, it is not rude to provide that information to the university, provided you are polite when you address them.
Resubmitting the Placement Preference Form
When you submit your Letters of Provisional Acceptance, you will also likely have to submit an updated Placement Preference Form. You are not allowed to list universities on your final Placement Preference Form that refused to issue you a Letter of Provisional Acceptance. This also applies if one professor/graduate school at a university has rejected your application. You can not list an alternate professor or graduate school at that university!
You are, however, allowed to list universities that have not yet replied to you as well as those that have issued you a Letter of Provisional Acceptance (even if the hard copy of that document has not yet arrived). Even if every university you applied to for a Letter of Provisional Acceptance rejected your application, you can also list universities that you never applied to. But in that case, since you won’t have a chance to contact the university in advance, you should do your research to make sure that they have a matching program and professor who can supervise you!
You should also be able to re-order your university preferences, but that is also something you should confirm with the embassy.
Since you can only get two Letters of Provisional Acceptance, but can submit up to three university names on your Placement Preference Form, you can include the names of universities that you didn’t apply to for Letters of Provisional Acceptance.
Secondary Screening and University Placement
Once you have submitted the Letters of Provisional Acceptance and the final Placement Preference Form, the application process is essentially over for you. All you have left to do is wait for your placement assignment, sometime between November to February.
Aside from the 2019-2020 cycle, I have never heard of an applicant getting rejected for the scholarship after passing the Primary Screening and submitting at least one Letter of Provisional Acceptance. However, in 2019, it happened to several people. In that year, MEXT reduced the number of places available to each country during the Primary Screening. Some countries seemed to have gotten the information in time and reduced the number of students who passed that screening, but others did not, so applicants from some countries were eliminated during the Secondary Screening to get down to the required number. In those cases, the applicants heard after MEXT’s Secondary Screening process and before the University Placement Process, so they got their replies much earlier than the successful applicants.
One thing that all rejected applicants I heard from had in common was that they had all left the Japanese Language Proficiency Test blank during the Primary Screening!
2019 was the first, and so far only, time I have heard of this happening. I do not expect it to happen again, but I can no longer be sure. This was also the year that Japan made higher education free to students from low-income households, so I suspect that had a major impact on MEXT’s budget and led to the cuts.
It will take a long time for the embassies to confirm that you have passed the Secondary Screening and to announce your university placement, but do not let that bother you. That is just normal, slow bureaucracy, not a reflection on your application. For the 2025/2026 application cycle, the final results and placement information are expected in January-March 2026.
Unofficial Results
Sometimes, you may end up hearing from the universities even before the embassy gives you the final approval. For example, universities might contact you about attending the Japanese language program around November. If they do, that usually means that you have passed the Secondary Screening and MEXT has reached out to that university to ask them to accept you.
You might also hear from your professor or housing office at one university on your list, asking about the Japanese language program or informing you that you should apply for housing (in the case of spring semester arrivals). In any of those cases, you can consider the contact from the university to be an unofficial confirmation that you will win the scholarship and be placed at that university.
However, if you do not get unofficial confirmation, don’t worry! Universities are not supposed to contact you at this stage, so the lack of any messages could just be a sign that they’re doing things right.
Once you have your final confirmation, I recommend that you reach out to the other university that issued you a Letter of Provisional Acceptance to let them know you were placed in another university and thank them for their support, particularly if you were in direct contact with the professor there. You never know when you might end up interacting with them after arriving in Japan!
For more about what to expect from the secondary screening and placement, I have another article entirely about that process.
Want a step-by-step process to evaluate universities and professors in Japan to find which would be the best fit for you? In How to Find your best Degree Program and Advisor for the MEXT Scholarship, I cover what to look for in an advisor, where to find that information, and how to reach out to network with them in advance.
Thank You, Supporters!
Thank you to my supporters on Patreon, who help keep this site running through their generous contributions. Special thanks to my newest Daimyo-level Patron, Boris K, and to everyone who has continued to support this site (and its predecessor, TranSenz) for months or years! I cannot express in words how much your support means to me!
You can support this site on Patreon for as little as $1 (or your currency of choice) per month or make a one-time donation through that site. Patreon supporters get one-on-one answers to questions, early access to articles and updates, and discounts on my coaching services/books.
If you want to show your support but Patreon is out of reach for now, please come back again after this site helps you win the scholarship, to help keep it running for future applicants!
Questions?
Let me know in the comments below!
Hi Travis,
Thank you so much for your help, I think many of us owe a lot to you for helping us to apply for this scholarship. I have several questions to ask regarding the LOPA.
1. I actually received my LOPA today from a national university. However the expected date of arrival is either April or Sept/Oct 2026 is acceptable. Will this affect my plan to go to Japan in April?
2. Is there any possibility for applicants this year to not passed the scholarship even though we got the LOPA due to current situation in Japan?
I am a very anxious person so I am afraid that even if I secured the LOPA I will still be rejected haha.
Thank you for reading this and I hope you are well!
Hi Fara,
Thank you for your kind feedback and, more importantly, congratulations on getting a Letter of Provisional Acceptance!
Hearing about successes like yours are what motivates me to keep this going.
1. Even though the letter says either one is possible now, there is another step in the process that will determine your arrival date. After MEXT’s Secondary Screening, they will contact universities to formally ask the universities to accept you. At that point the university must do so and make the final decision on whether you will arrive in April or Sept/Oct and whether or not you will attend the Japanese language semester before starting your studies at the university (as a non-degree or degree student). So, it is still possible for you to arrive in April, but the decision has not yet been made. In some cases, the university will contact you to ask your preference before submitting their decision to MEXT.
2. There is nothing going on in Japan at the moment that I am aware of that would lead to scholarship slots being reduced. I have every reason to believe that all applicants who passed the Primary Screening and got at least one LoPA will receive the scholarship in the end.
Good Luck!
– Travis
Hello Travis,
First of all, I want to say a huge thank you for your posts, which have been very helpful for me these past two months. Regarding the LoPA request, I want to ask whether it is “normal” to withdraw one’s application after they have submitted one (but before having the request rejected or accepted, in which case an LoPA would be issued)?
I’m in a bit of a situation right now, especially with the deadline fast approaching. So, I’ve sent my LoPA request for a university last week (my 2nd preference) as I don’t need to contact faculty member prior to that. At that point, I was ready to accept that I probably would have to let go of my 1st preference as the decision whether I can submit my application was still up in the air (the university’s policy required me to obtain consent from my prospective supervisor). Now, apparently that opportunity presents itself again, but the issue is that I have agreed to meet with a faculty member from my 3rd preference on September 2nd after I submit my LoPA request.
In hindsight this should be an easily avoidable situation, but now that it has come to this, I don’t think I want to let go of my 1st preference. So, I plan to withdraw my LoPA request from either my 2nd or 3rd preference (probably my 2nd preference, because I have yet to personally contact any faculty member personally) later next week. Do you know of similar situations like this, and what would you think the best course of action for me now?
Thank you!
Hi Arya,
I wouldn’t say that it’s “normal” to withdraw an LoPA request, since it only happens in avoidable circumstances. But it does happen (I hear from applicants every year who panic-apply to too many universities then have to withdraw an application) and, in your case, I don’t see that you have any choice.
The deadline to apply to universities for an LoPA is Monday, September 1, this year, so unless you have formally started the application process to the 3rd choice university, according to their instructions, meeting with a prospective advisor the day after the deadline is probably too late, anyway. Giving up that university seems like the natural choice. (If that application is already underway and meeting the advisor is part of the screening process, not a pre-submission requirement, please disregard that comment!)
Considering your 2nd choice, depending on the university, direct conversations with a faculty member may or may not be necessary, so that shouldn’t be your only consideration, unless communication with the advisor is meaningful to you. I assume your second choice was higher than your third choice for a reason, so I would suggest that you withdraw the application to the university that you are least interested in attending.
Good Luck!
– Travis
Hi Travis, thanks for the advice! At the end I did not need to withdraw a request, since the university of my 2nd choice rejected my application.
Now, I see this as somewhat “fortunate” in the context of my situation, but it got me thinking of my prospects with the other universities. I have had a meeting with each of my prospective advisors and they all went well, so I guess you could say I got their informal acceptance. Nevertheless, since formal decision could only be made by the graduate school, I wonder what are the chances that for whatever reason I fail to get an LoPA from either of these universities?
Hi Arya,
I’m glad to hear that it didn’t end up being a problem and that you’re taking that rejection well.
Even though the “formal decision” is made by the graduate school, in my experience, it’s really up to the individual advisors for the Embassy-Recommended MEXT Scholarship and the formal decision is more of a rubber stamp approving the advisor’s proposal.
For the Embassy-Recommended MEXT Scholarship, there is no limit to the number of applicants that a university or graduate school can issue LoPAs for. (This is a significant difference from the University-Recommended MEXT Scholarship!) The only limit is really how many grad students a particular professor can supervise at any given time. If your meetings with the prospective advisors went well, that’s a really good sign. The only potential issue I could think of would be if the individual advisors then had meetings with a large number of other candidates and couldn’t take everyone.
So, “chances” depend entirely on whether or not there were other applicants to the same advisors and how the advisors’ meetings with those applicants went.
Good Luck!
– Travis
Hi Travis,
I am a student funded by the MEXT scholarship, and I planned to live with my husband as my dependent. I would like to know how much I should have in my bank account (for the bank statement) in order to bring my spouse to live with me in Japan.
Thank you in advance.
Hi Clementie,
As a MEXT Scholar, it is your monthly stipend that is more important as a source of funds to support your husband, though having the bank account helps.
In general, you should be able to show that you will be able to provide your husband with 80,000-120,000 yen of support per month from your stipend and account. A little lower might be possible, too, considering that you will be living together so housing and utility costs will be shared.
In most cases I know of, the MEXT stipend was enough by itself, but having some savings, too, certainly wouldn’t hurt!
Good Luck!
– Travis
Hi Travis,
Your blog helps me a lot in my application! Thank you so much for sharing insightful information.
I have passed the primary screening and got acceptance from professor and graduate school of my first choice university (which is a national). Before the interview round, I emailed to my second-choice professor and also got positive reply from him. Now I wonder if I should apply for a LoPA from 2nd university (which is also a national) as a backup, or 1 LoPA is enough? Hope to hear from you!
Hi Mimi,
Thank you for your kind feedback and congratulations on getting an LoPA from your first-choice university!
Since your first choice is a national university, it seems very likely that you would be placed there, regardless of whether you receive an LoPA from your second choice. But I think that having a backup is always a safe idea, just in case something happens at the first university. It also shows during the secondary screening that your application was approved by two universities, adding credibility.
Since both universities are nationals, I can’t see any reason that MEXT would contact the second university to ask them to officially accept you unless the first declined to do so for some reason. So, there should be no downside to getting the second letter.
Good Luck!
– Travis
Dear Travis,
I hope this message finds you well. I am currently in a difficult situation regarding my LoPA requests. I have submitted requests to two universities: one has not responded yet—likely because it will be on vacation until August 17—and the other informed me that my desired supervisor will only be able to oversee my research for the Master’s program due to his upcoming retirement.
This professor’s research field is the closest match to mine within the school’s program, so it would be challenging to find another suitable supervisor. Ideally, another professor could supervise my doctoral research; however, the embassy has informed me that, in principle, the same university and the same supervisor should oversee both the Master’s and the doctoral programs.
In this situation, is there anything the university could do to ensure that I can still pursue the doctoral program if my supervisor changes? I have an interview scheduled in a few days with the professor who is retiring, but I am not sure whether he would be able to recommend another supervisor.
Additionally, I have contacted a professor at Keio University for an informal acceptance, and he has agreed to supervise me; however, I cannot move forward with Keio since I already have two pending requests.
What would you advise me to do?
Thank you very much in advance.
Best regards,
Omar
Hi Omar,
It really depends on the university and the lab/system. If there is another professor taking over that lab and continuing the same research, or if they hire another professor in the same field, then it should be possible. But so much could happen between now and then–including your research interest changing–that it’s impossible to say for sure.
You might need to consider another university for your doctorate, but that is years away, so there is no sense in worrying about it now.
Your supervisor retiring and there being no successor to continue your supervision at that university would be clear grounds for an exception to the “in principle” (not really a hard rule anyway) guidance that you should continue for your PhD at the same university, so that is nothing to worry about.
If the current program you are applying to is the best for your degree, then I recommend that you stick with that as your choice.
Good Luck!
– Travis
Hello Travis,
Thank you for answering questions and sharing your useful information.
My question is about the restrictions on corresponding with universities and the number of acceptance letters. To put it briefly, how serious is this restriction, and could it cause problems?
As you probably know, there’s a restriction on communicating with only two universities at a time and submitting only two acceptance letters. On the other hand, the application review process by universities is lengthy, and with summer holidays, there’s a significant chance we might not receive any acceptance letters before the deadline, leaving no time to contact other universities. Do you think this restriction is very strict, and should we avoid the risk of contacting multiple universities simultaneously? If not, what happens if more than two universities end up offering us acceptance letters?
Hi David B,
No, I don’t think the restriction is particularly strict. In all my years of working with the MEXT scholarship, it has been extremely rare that an applicant got a response from any university before the LoPA application submission deadline–other than obviosu rejections tht the applicant should have seen coming (e.g. applying for a Japanese-taught program with no Japanese ability). In fact, this year, the deadline is the latest I’ve ever seen it, so you actually have more of a chance than ever before to get a response in time. (Still not much of a chance, since August is summer vacation at most universities.)
So, stick to the limit and you should be fine. Never contact more than two universities at a time. Everyone else this year and in the past has had the same restriction. If you have done your research, there should be a good chance of getting at least one letter!
Good Luck!
– Travis
Hi Travis,
Thank you for your helpful information.
My question is: What should be included in the email when requesting acceptance from the university?
Should I briefly introduce myself in the email — for example, mention my field of study, job, and area of expertise — or is it enough to just say that I’m requesting acceptance and attach the documents?
Hi Sam,
The most important thing is to follow all instruction from the university’s website about how to submit your LoPA request and what to include in the cover letter/submission. If they ask you to provide specific information, make sure to include that!
If they do not ask for any specific information, then I recommend that you keep the cover letter clear and simple. Give your name, explain that you are an Embassy-Recommended MEXT Scholarship applicant who passed the Embassy’s Primary Screening in [name of your country]. Then tell them that you would like to apply for a Letter of Provisional Acceptance and give the name of the graduate school and professor that you want to work with. If your embassy has given you a specific deadline to submit LoPAs, let them know that as well.
Finally, offer to answer any questions they may have or thank them in advance for their consideration of your application.
It should be no more than a few lines containing only the essential details and etiquette.
By the way, next week is a series of national holidays in Japan, so unless you send your application during the business day, Japan time, on Friday, Aug 8, do not expect any replies for at least a week! (Some offices and staff may already be out on vacation today, as well.)
Good Luck!
– Travis
Hi Travis,
Thank you so much for your helpful guide—I’ve been referring to it for two application cycles now, and I’m happy to share that I’ve finally reached the LoPA stage!
I received a Letter of Provisional Acceptance from a professor, and it was sent to me through the graduate school’s official email. However, I had already been in contact with the academic advisor, particularly during the earlier interview process. I was wondering if it would be appropriate to personally email him to express my gratitude for issuing the LoPA and possibly inquire about any recommended readings or preparatory activities for his research lab, or if it would be best to wait until the final MEXT results are released before reaching out again?
Thank you very much again for your guidance!
Hi Suntia,
Thank you for your kind feedback! I am thrilled to hear that you passed the Primary Screening and got a Letter of Provisional Acceptance!
Since you had been in touch with the academic advisor before, I think it would be polite to reach out to him to express your gratitude and excitement about working with him.
As for asking about preparatory reading or activities, it depends on how likely you think you are to be placed there. If the university is either a national university and first choice, or your only choice, then it’s almost certain you would be placed there, so it would be OK to ask. If it is a second choice or a private university (with at least one national university on your list), then I would wait until you have the final results and can be sure that you would be placed there.
Good Luck!
– Travis
Dear Travis,
Thank you for the valuable information.
Is it acceptable to withdraw or request to cancel a LOPA request from a university? I applied to a national university two weeks ago and they said they would give me their response mid-august.
The reason I want to withdraw from them is that I am not sure now whether the dissertations will be written in English or in Japanese and I have found a better university in Tokyo but I cannot apply to it unless I free up a slot. The other university I applied to is Waseda which is private. The one I wanna apply to is Keio which is also private. What do you advice me? Should I keep waiting for Tsukuba since it is a national university or should I withdraw from it and get an acceptance from 2 private unis? Thank you for your help.
Hi Mina,
It is possible to withdraw your LoPA request. I don’t think the university would be happy about it, so you would risk burning bridges there, but they cannot stop you.
If the program is taught in English, then the dissertation would be in English, but if it is taught in Japanese, then the dissertation would likely be in Japanese. If there is no Japanese language requirement for admission, then you can be sure that they will not ask you to write your dissertation in Japanese!
Other than the language issue, I don’t know why you determined that Keio is “better” for you than Tsukuba (in other words, I don’t know your decision criteria), so I can’t offer any useful advice there. I think you should choose the university where the professor, facilities, and academic work available offer the best opportunity to complete your research.
Good Luck!
– Travis
Hi Travis, how are you doing? Thanks for your efforts.
I would like to ask you what is the best for getting high acceptance.
is it choosing national university or private one. Taking by consideration that my field is too close to the private universities?
Second, do you know some universities that is for foreign languages because my field of study is English language and literature and I’m facing difficulties in finding national universities for English language and literature despite reading your article
Hi Aymen Berrahal,
You should choose the university that is best suited for the research that you want to conduct. Don’t worry so much about whether it’s national or private, that won’t make as much of a difference as the compatibility with your research proposal.
Why do you want to study English language and literature in Japan? It’s not really the best place for it (especially if you can’t find any programs in the field!). To increase your chances of winning the scholarship, you need to be able to justify how your intended research topic in Japan will enable you make a unique contribution to society after graduation, so the field and the location should both make sense in the argument you make.
If you can’t find a program that matches the name “English language and literature” then I recommend you search for programs based on your specific research topic. You might be able to research it in a program with a different name, as long as the contents of the program are a good fit.
Good Luck!
– Travis
Hello, Travis
Can we contact the embassy during the second screening? I actually did not send the Letters via courier because I received them pretty early. And I called the Embassy and they said hard copies are not required now
About after two months, I realized that maybe I should have sent a courier. Can I contact them now or will it be a hindrance in any case?
Hi Swetha,
If they didn’t ask for the originals when you submitted your digital copies, then I do not think there is any point to contacting them or sending them now.
Contacting the Embassy won’t do any good during this point of the application process. They will not have any information for you.
I know it’s hard, but I call the Secondary Screening the “Long Wait” for a reason. There is nothing you can do but wait for the results. There is a lot of long, slow bureaucracy going on behind the scenes, but they won’t have any official information for you until it’s done. Since you submitted two Letters of Provisional Acceptance, you should have nothing to worry about!
Good Luck!
– Travis S.
Hello, Travis
A very informative blog! Thank you very much for your efforts!!
I have submitted two LOAs to the Embassy. However, the universities have not confirmed when they will hold the entrance exams. Is it okay if I reach out to the universities during the second screening to inquire when I will be expected to take the entrance test?
Also, should I clarify this with the Embassy as well? Looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you
Best Regards,
Swetha
Hi Swetha,
Thank you for your kind feedback.
I do not think that you have to reach out to the universities or the embassy at this point. If they need you to do anything, they will let you know. The only time I would suggest that you reach out to follow up would be if they had already told you that they expect you to take the entrance exam before arrival, or something like that. If they didn’t mention it before, then there probably isn’t any need to follow up now.
In my experience, it is pretty rare for Embassy-Recommended MEXT Scholars to take the entrance exam before arriving in Japan. Some universities will consider the screening of your documents from the embassy sufficient as an “entrance exam”, but most will expect you to arrive in Japan as a Research Student then take the official entrance exam after arriving.
If they do want you to take the entrance exam before arriving, they would probably have you take the same one as regular applicants to the university, so before you contact the universities to ask, be sure to look up that usual admission process. That way, when you contact them, you can ask if you should follow that process or not.
The embassy would not have any information for you at this point. They are completely out of the loop on the selection process until they receive the final results.
Good Luck!
– Travis S.
Thank you very much for the clarification! I am now relieved.
Have a great day!
Swetha
Hi Travis!
If I get the Letter of Acceptance, and then I pass the second screening (talking about Embassy track), do I still to take an admission test at the university after my arrival to Japan?
Thanks for your answer!
Hi Joel,
Did your Letter of Provisional Acceptance say that the university would accept you as a research student or as a degree student? If it said degree student, then you should not need to complete any more entrance examination, etc. However, if it said research student, then you will still need to complete the university’s entrance exam either before or after arrival in Japan.
MEXT’s scholarship selection process (passing the secondary screening, etc.) is about the scholarship, not acceptance for the degree program.
If you start your scholarship as a research student and apply for admission to the degree program later, you will need to apply to extend your MEXT Scholarship then.
Good Luck!
– Travis S.
Hello Travis!
First of all, thank you very much for all the work you do with keeping up such an amazing resource for all of us who wish to study and research in Japan! It helped many people and I am certainly one of those people.
I am currently getting my last documents ready to be submitted (Preference Form + LoAs). I was lucky to get 2 LoAs, one from a public university, one from a national. Public university I’ve applied to is a specialized one, and is much closer to what I want to study and to my research plan, so I listed it as my 1st preference. As for the national, the specific graduate school I’ve applied to is multidisciplinary and getting there means I’d have to change my research significantly.
My question: would MEXT still prefer to place me in a national one despite the discrepancy of the research theme? I know monetary reasons also play a role here, and I checked the fees for both of these universities, and they are the same for both programs (be it research student status or a graduate student one).
Would be extremely grateful if you share your thoughts!
Kind regards,
runa
Hi Runa,
Thank you for your kind words!
I’m not sure how much MEXT looks at the discrepancy between the research topics when deciding on your placement. I suspect the people who make that decision aren’t academically qualified to make that distinction!
In general, MEXT prefers national universities because national universities are run by the central government, essentially by MEXT, and when you study at a national university, MEXT just tells the university to waive your tuition.
Public universities, on the other hand, are run by local governments at the prefectural or city level, not by MEXT. So, for those universities, MEXT has to pay the tuition to the university.
That said, tuition at public universities is quite a bit lower than at private ones-therefore, the savings to MEXT of switching an applicant from a public to a national is less (close to half) than what they would save by switching an applicant from a private to a national, so you shouldn’t be at as high a risk as someone who had a national first choice.
I’m sorry I can’t offer anything more concrete but those are the factors as far as I know. I hope you end up in your first choice!
Good Luck!
– Travis
Dear Travis,
Good day to you. How are you doing? I am aware that the fall season is coming in Japan. I hope you can enjoy the fall season peacefully with family and friends. Travis, to follow up on my previous question, I have contacted my potential supervisor, who has agreed upon the arrival month. However, I have not received information regarding the LOPA to date. I am thinking of a follow-up mail regarding the topic (the deadline from the Japanese embassy in Indonesia is the 18th of September). What do you think? Please kindly inform me. That will be all from me Travis, wishing you a great day!
Best regards,
Aditia B
Hi Aditya B,
I have been doing well, thank you. Frankly, I wish the fall season would come a little faster. It’s still rather hot and humid where I live. 🙂 How have you been?
It sounds like things are going well, but given that your deadline is coming up in less than a week, I think this would be an appropriate time to send a follow-up email to tell them your embassy’s deadline and ask if they will be able to issue an LoPA by then. If they reply that they cannot get it done that fast, at least you’ll have the email reply from them that you can show the embassy to indicate that an LoPA is coming!
When you contact the university, though, be careful not to come across like you are demanding that they get it to you by the deadline and make sure to communicate that you just want to know if it is possible or not so that you know what to tell the embassy. (Based on our past communication, I don’t think that’s a problem for you, but leaving the comment in there for future readers!)
Good Luck!
– Travis
Dear Travis,
Good day Travis, how are you ? Wishing you a nice day. Congratulations with the new website. Ireally love the design. I would like to ask about the issue I am facing during this LOPA-applying process. So, I have finally get response from an University after being rejected a few times due to laboratorium capacity (thank God). But now I am facing an issue. My future supervisor would like me to arrive in Japan April 2025, but due to few reasons I prefer to arrive at October 2025. I think that I should communicate regarding this issue with him, to clear the issue. But I am afraid to be considered as rude. Would it be possible to share your taught regarding this matter ? Thank you before for the advise. Wishing you a great day.
Best regards,
Dito
Hi Dito,
Thank you for your kind feedback!
Congratulations on getting the Letter of Provisional Acceptance!
For your situation, I agree that it’s important to discuss with your professor. Regardless of what you put in your application form for your preferred arrival semester, the arrival time specified in the Letter of Provisional Acceptance will take precedence.
If there are unavoidable issues why you need to defer to October that you think your professor would understand, you can explain that to him and ask him to consider the later date. Whether it’s rude or not would depend on your reasons (serious/unavoidable or just convenience/preference) and the wording of your email. Before you contact your professor, though, I recommend that you think about how important the date is to you. If he insists on April, would you prefer to cancel your MEXT Scholarship, or are there are arrangements that you can make to make an April arrival possible. Decide what is negotiable to you before you start the conversation.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hi there Travis! First of congratulations on getting a new website look. It really looks much more nicer now, and would be easier for people to find out about your blog!
My question is about the preference form and the second selection. I got one letter from Kumamoto University and getting second one from Obihiro Univ of Agriculture and Veterinary Science. If I put Kumamoto as my first and Obihiro as the second, is that sure that I will be placed in Kumamoto?
Hi Fi,
Thank you for your feedback!
Nothing is ever 100% certain with the MEXT Scholarship, but I see no reason why MEXT would not contact Kumamoto first to ask them to accept you. (In that case, they would only contact Obihiro to ask them to accept you if Kumamoto decided not to formally accept you in the end.)
At this point, I would say it is as certain as things can ever be with MEXT that you will be placed in Kumamoto.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Thank you very much for your reply