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Hi Travis! I accidentally posted this same question on a unrelated article
I’ve been wanting to apply for the Undergraduate 2027 scholarship in Russia next year and have been learning Japanese with slow but great success, over the time I’ve had a few questions pile up due to my curiosity about the entire process and your blog posts have been able to answer most of them, but I had other questions pop up and I want to know your opinion and answers on them if you are able to
About the Application Process:
1. In the Instruction document, it said I should bring the school diploma and the uni diploma, if I have studied in college do I need to bring the diploma from college and school or do I need to bring just the school diploma?
2. If I will be studying in 2026 during the time the application for the year 2027 will be in process, would I have to bring the notice of finishing
education on a certain date from the education center or would be fine? Asking this because in the country i’m from it’s only 11 years of schooling compared to Japan’s 12.
3. If I’m from a very unpopular country where students apply like my country, would the applicants be not looked over as much due to the low amount of applicants there?
4. Do grades in school or uni/college matter? Does the more recent one matter more or they both do? I had bad grades in school but I’ve been improving in college.
About the the Interview itself:
1. If I’m gonna be apply for the Japanese Linguistics, would a Research Plan of improving the foreign language studies, the way it was studied by students and also teached, make sense?
2. Are interviews fully in English/Japanese or do they allow the interview to be done in the official language of the country the embassy is located in?(e.g. conducting the interview in Russian in the Russian Japanese Embassy)
I would appreciate it if you can answer any of those questions
Cheers!
Hi Michael,
My area of expertise is the MEXT Scholarship for graduate students and I am less familiar with the undergraduate process, but I will answer your questions as best as possible. I also recommend that you read the official application guidelines, since it seems you have some of the procedures confused with the graduate scholarship.
Application process:
1. You must submit the secondary school diploma and transcript plus any transcript or diploma from undergraduate studies if you have one.
2. You only need a certificate of expected graduation if you plan to finish the program in question before starting your MEXT Scholarship. If you will withdraw, then it isn’t necessary.
3. As long as the MEXT Scholarship for Undergraduate Students is available for application in your country, you are allowed to apply and your application will receive all due consideration. However, it appears that most countries do not have a pre-allocated number of scholarship places, so you may be competing with applicants from several other countries for a small pool of aggregate slots, which would make the competition much more intense!
4. I cannot be sure, but I assume that secondary school grades receive more attention, since that is the common factor for all applicants. If you had a completed undergraduate degree, that might get consideration, but in that case, you would be much better off applying for a graduate scholarship!
Interview questions
1. You do not need a research plan for the undergraduate scholarship, but you should be able to make a case for how the degree you will earn in Japan will help you contribute to society in a specific way.
2. The interview should be in English, with some Japanese to test your ability if you have indicated any in your application, but I have heard of some interviews also using the local language in cases, so I cannot be completely sure. I do not have any specific examples from Russia, but maybe someone else can chime in to share their experience!
Good Luck!
– Travis
Greetings again
About the college diploma question, in our country, colleges count as part of the secondary school depending on if students left school after the 9th class, thanks to that colleges are required to educate students who left school early all the basic studies in the 2 year period of what would be teached in the 10th and 11th class and that counts as second education as well as preparation for the profession.
I just was wondering if the more recent diploma would receive more attention than the one thats old since technically newer diplomas would state the more recent results of the students competence(not sure if this is a correct, or even a real word but what I meant is the students “will to study” and their “perfomance”). About the certificate of expected graduation, once I do show it, do I need to show the proper diploma before departure or after the first/second screening? Another question related to the screening process, from what I can gather, the second screening is competitive in the same way as the first one for undergraduates?
Anyways, thanks for clearing up alot of my original questions as well as the Research Plan question, I thought it was designated for Undergraduate scholarship as well and it was the main thing that would always make me worried since it meant I wouldve had to write up a large document and stuff, ofcourse I wouldve had some assistance from my English teacher, but luckly thats not the case, looks like less stress work for me for the time being and should worry about the interview questions.
Cheers!
Hi Michael,
I’m not familiar with the education systems in all countries, so thank you for clearing that up.
What matters is the diploma and transcript of grades from the last phase of your secondary schooling (in other words, the schooling that would give you the qualification to apply for a university/undergraduate degree in your country). If there are multiple steps to secondary schooling, then it is the last step that matters.
In Japan, that would be high school or upper secondary school, consisting of grades 10, 11, and 12, if that helps.
So, you need the certificate of graduation or expected graduation for that schooling as well as the transcript of grades.
If you have not finished your schooling at the time of application, you will need to submit the final transcript and certificate of graduation later. The embassy should provide more instructions once you pass the screenings.
For the undergraduate scholarship, my understanding is that the secondary screening is competitive unless your country is one that has a pre-determined number of slots. (We previously discussed that is not the case for you.) So, yes, expect competition at that screening, too.
I hope that helps. Sorry about the education system confusion earlier.
Good Luck!
– Travis
Dear Mr. Senzaki,
I hope this message finds you well. My name is Sara, and I am currently preparing my application for the MEXT scholarship. As part of the application requirements, I need to calculate my GPA according to the MEXT scale.
In Peru, the grading system is based on a scale from 0 to 20, where the minimum passing grade is 11.
I would greatly appreciate it if you could assist me by reviewing my grades and helping me determine my GPA based on the MEXT system. I have attached a document with all the relevant grades for your reference.
Additionally, I would like to ask if there are any different considerations for calculating GPA for applicants from Latin American countries, and if being in the fifth superior would be taken into account in the evaluation process.
Hi Sara,
I think you also sent me an email with the same question and your transcript attached. However, there is not enough information in your comment, email, or attachment for me to figure out how to convert your grades. You need to find an “explanation of the grading system”, as I described in my article about How to Convert Your Grades for the MEXT Scholarship.
Once you find the explanation of your grading system, you should be able to figure out the grade conversion yourself using that article or the article of examples. But if you are still struggling, the examples article linked above explains how you can submit the system to me so that I can add it to the article. (It may take me a while to get to it, though, so please do not expect an update right away.)
Good Luck!
– Travis
Hello Travis,
First off, thank you for all the informational material you provide. It has been extremely helpful in my preparations for the MEXT scholarship.
What does keep deeply worrying me, is the research plan. While I do have a very general field and very long-term plans that would all tie it in, in an academical sense, I have no idea how to pick out a particular topic. I am an Astronomy student and plan on doing a PhD in Japan with the help of the MEXT scholarship. While Japan does have a wide range of possibilities for someone like myself, I have the problem of not being able to exactly define a particular topic, worrying that it will force me to do my doctorate in that exact topic. “Topic” here, I mean Radio Observations of far away objects, or Satellite Instrument development. The former is a more research focused topic, the later a more engineering related topic, while the former could also be tied in with particle physics and cosmology.
I have been contacting potential supervisors asking them if they would accept foreign graduate students and have even managed to narrow down my list of institutions to just three. But so far I had my e-mails either get ignored, indirectly declined (by being redirected to the institution’s recruitment rules – my e-mail clearly not being read) or directly declined (due to the professor leaving) and then ignored, after asking for other professors that work on similar topics.
The problem comes with writing the research plan and presenting a proper topic. Since it is for a doctorate, I will have to apply as a Research Student first, but does this also mean that the topic I present has to be something at the frontier of my field? My former supervisor also insists that I should try to contact potential PhD supervisors to consult with them before making a research plan, and that actually they should be the ones that give me a proper topic for my PhD. Is that correct, or are there some cultural differences at play here?
How do you properly contact a professor at a Japanese institution to ask him if he is interested in supervising your PhD in a general field? I am slightly worried that I might have used an improper tone and offended some. I do contact them in English by their title of Professor, since I am very uncertain about my Japanese capabilities.
Thanks.
Hi Piotr,
Thank you for your kind comments.
I literally wrote a book that answers your questions and I’m not sure that I can give a useful answer in any shorter form.
You should have a fully fledged research topic and plan ready to propose before contacting potential advisors in Japan, especially at the PhD level. Of course, be flexible to change it if the advisor demands, but if you come to them with nothing and ask them to help you develop a topic, of course they will ignore you. (Why would it be worth their time?)
Your research proposal should also be close to the professor’s topic, so you need to research them in advance as much as possible to decide if they would be a good fit or not.
I have much more advice included in the book (including how to research professors and how to contact them) and can’t fit all of it in a brief answer here. If the book is out of range price-wise, you could always ask your university library to buy it in paper or digital form so that you can read it for free, too.
Good Luck!
– Travis
Hey, Travis!
I just got notified by my prospective academic advisor that I have been accepted as a MEXT scholar(Embassay recommedation). During my preparation process, I got a ton of help from your helpful insights and information. So, I just wanted to say thank you and I truly appreciate your help and what you are doing for current and future MEXT scholars.
Hi Won,
Congratulations and thank you for sharing this happy news!
I am thrilled to hear that you were successful and will be headed to Japan, soon.
(For anyone else reading this, advisors aren’t supposed to reveal that you have been selected before the official announcement, so if you haven’t heard anything yet, please don’t worry!)
Good Luck!
– Travis
Hi travis,
I wanted to apply through a university recommendation route but In the university website the course I am willing to apply is not associated with MEXT what should I do now? is there any other option I could get the scholarship?
Hi Rosy,
I’m not sure what you mean when you say the course is not associated with MEXT. Could you explain in more detail?
Even if the program that you want to apply to is not a PGP program, there may still be an opportunity to apply for it via the University-Recommended MEXT Scholarship. But if the university you want to apply to has chosen not to accept applications for the University-Recommended MEXT Scholarship at all, or only for certain courses, then you would have to find another option instead.
In general, you could choose a different university that offers a similar degree program or, if that university accepts Embassy-Recommended MEXT Scholarship students, you could wait for that application cycle.
Good Luck!
– Travis
Hey travis, thank you for the reply what I meant was in the university website it is written special priority is given to the following courses for mext scholarship from certain field like from dentistry there’s one course selected, from engineering one course is selected and so on . But the one course I was planning to do is not in the special priority list does this mean I won’t be considered for mext scholarship from university??
Hi Rosy,
Thank you for the clarification!
I don’t thing I’ve come across anything like that before where the university specifically says which courses have priority (unless those are PGP courses).
If they are prioritizing specific courses and yours is not on the list, then I think that makes it very unlikely that you would be selected unless there were no suitable candidates at all in the prioritized courses. (If the prioritized courses are PGP programs, though, that does not apply! PGP Programs are counted separately.)
If the prioritized programs are not PGP programs, then I think you would have a better chance applying somewhere else instead.
Good Luck!
– Travis
Hello Travis, thank you for providing us with such an extensive blog regarding the MEXT scholarship, I do have a bit of questions though.
1.) Im in my Senior High school years and once I finish how do I really do the academic transcripts part, my country uses report cards per year so do I just compile them as one. Also Im confused on who can issue or make these transcripts
2.) I have been in only two schools for the whole duration of my secondary education. school A for junior and school B for senior. Do i seperate the two according to schools or keep them as one
(pls excuse the lack of question marks, the button does not work for me. i didnt want to seem rude)
i hope you can help me with this since i really want to prepare in advance and not screw up my application form. many thanks again. :))
Hi Annielise,
1. If your high school does not issue a single record of all of your academic performance over the course of four years, then submitting your report cards should be an acceptable alternative. Have you asked your schools about providing grade records? I would assume that they need to provide those records to any student applying to university in any country. If your school has an office that helps prepare students for university, I recommend you consult with them. Usually, schools are the ones that issue their own transcripts, but they should be able to tell you if that is not the case for you.
2. Assuming a system where you spend 3 years each in junior high and senior high (or 2 and 4, etc.), only senior high school education should be relevant, so you would not need to submit records from junior high school.
Good Luck!
– Travis S.
Hi, I’m in the year 11 of my senior High school years and have a few years to prepare before applying to the MEXT embassy scholarship for undergraduate. I have a few questions and if you could find some time to answer, it would help me and I will greatly appreciate it!
A.) Are there some limited slots per field and which ones are more competitive in general? (I’m aiming for the undergraduate course in Sociology.)
B.) I’ve just started, but the current theme I have in mind for me right now is that I wanted to use my studies in Japan to live, take part and be fully immersed in the culture of Japan, and I greatly appreciate its several advances in life such as tech stuff,education, arts, music and the like. Throughout my years of studying there, I aimed to bring my knowledge from Japan to strengthen my own country and be a bridge in the relationship between Japan and my home country. Would that be a too general of a respone and what else do I need to consider?
I really hope you read this and answer, thank you!
Hi Ren,
My area of expertise is the graduate scholarship, but I will try to address your question as best I can.
1) There is no official limit of slots per field within MEXT’s guidelines, but MEXT and your country’s government may choose to allocate slots to certain fields. I know that this has happened in some countries with the scholarship for graduate students. Unfortunately, unless the embassy comes out and states that there is a limit, there is no way to know for sure.
2) Yes, this is a perfect of example of being way too general and meaningless. Any other applicant could say the same exact thing, so you need to think of something that is unique and makes you stand out. Your theme should be something specific that you will contribute to the world in the future. It should be something that you will become able to do after your studies in Japan, and it needs to be related to your field of study. So, think about the situation in your home country, its relationship with Japan, and your own skills and background then come up with a unique and meaningful contribution that you will be able to make to society as a Sociologist trained in Japan. (Of course, it needs to be something that is meaningful to you, too!)
I have an article about maximizing your MEXT Scholarship chances that describes how to develop your theme that should help!
Good Luck!
– Travis S.
Thanks a lot for the quick and honest reply! Honestly speaking I wanted to just use the mext scholarship as a great base for when I work as a CIR(coordinator of international relations) under the JET programme in Japan too. Should I just roll with that then?
Hi Ren,
Thank you for your reply. I don’t mean to be cruel, but this is an area where I often see MEXT applicants fall short, so I want to emphasize how important it is to make a unique statement here.
Working for the JET program as a CIR also isn’t significant enough, either. No statement about getting a job or working for someone would be. You need to go further and describe how you will use that job to make a unique, specific difference in society. It should be related to your field of studies, too. The job should just be a stepping stone to something meaningful that you intend to accomplish.
I hope that makes it a little more clear.
Good Luck!
– Travis S.
Hi, Travis
This year, I plan to apply for the MEXT university recommendation from the Nara Institute of Science and Technology. However, I am currently a bit stuck on the application form. Could I ask you about the publication section? Should I include my thesis even though I did not publish it?
Thank you very much for your help
Hi Fajrul,
In my article about how to fill in the University-Recommended MEXT Scholarship application form, I cover that exact question with an example of how to cite an unpublished thesis.
Please see the link above for details.
Good Luck!
– Travis S.
Hi, I’m new here.
Please, what are the basic requirements for the undergraduate category of the scholarship and can a secondary school graduate apply too?
Hi Fikayo,
My area of expertise is the scholarship for graduate students, but you can find the eligibility requirements for the undergraduate scholarship and other information about the application in the official guidelines on the Study in Japan website.
Good Luck!
– Travis S.
Hello…..
I am a MEXT Ph.D student from this October and I am making plan to bring my wife and son here in Japan. I heard there are government day care facilities for children in Japan and parent should pay the fees of day care according to their monthly salary. If I admit my son in day care of Japan government, should I pay monthly fees of child care according to my MEXT scholarship allowances?
Thank you in advance.
Hi Anonymous,
As far as I understand it, the fees for those institutions are based on the amount of Residence Tax (juminzei 住民税) you pay, not directly on your income. So, you would need to know the amount of Residence Tax to calculate your costs.
I should also note that, depending on where you live, it might not be possible to find a place in a day care (Hoikuen). In my city, we were not able place any of my children in the day care category (age 0-2) because there weren’t places open in any of the ones near us and we were low priority because my spouse was not employed at the time.
Good Luck!
– Travis S.
Hello,
First of all, I would like to thank you for your guidance and replies to questions for MEXT applicants! The helpful information on your website (new name/URL now!) really contributed to my passing of the primary screening of the MEXT embassy track 2024/2025!
Unfortunately, as for my request for the Letter of Provisional Acceptance(s) from 2 universities, I was recently rejected from both. And now the period of requesting LoPA from universities is already over for the MEXT Embassy track (2024/2025). So I would like to ask whether is it possible and a good idea for me to:
1. List out a different graduate school (in the SAME university)? As I found another professor who her special field really matches my research plan, in a different graduate school but same university (I did not choose to request LoPA from her at first because another professor from the other graduate school also matches my study plan, however, he might be close to his retirement. Therefore, that may be the reason why I got rejected).
2. If it is possible, should I contact that professor in a different graduate school, the same university, to ask whether she can accept me? (and sending her my research plan and other documents, if requested).
3. If 1. and 2. is not possible or highly discouraged to do so. Should I still contact other universities (ones that I had not contacted for LoPA nor rejected me) to ask whether they can accept me? Or this should not be done as the period for “contacting” university (whether it is for LoAP or not) is already over?
Thank you so much for your hard work and your time for answering,
Pookan
Hi Pookan,
Thank you for your kind feedback. I wanted to move to a new URL that made more sense and was easier to remember. 🙂 I’m glad I could help with the Primary Screening advice, at least, though I am sorry to hear that your LoPA application process didn’t go as well.
1. Whether or not you can reach out to another professor at the same university depends on where you were in the application process when your application got rejected. If you were applying to a university where you reach out directly to the professor for approval (either first, or as the only step), and the professor rejected your application, then you might be able to list another professor from the same university. But, if you submitted your application officially to the university and they rejected it, then you should not list that same university again.
Honestly, I have almost never seen a case where two different professors in different graduate schools at the same university could both be potential supervisors for the same research, though. The only examples I know of is where the two schools are very similar in content, but one has an academic focus (e.g. Life Sciences) and one has a practical focus (e.g. Medicine). So, in any case, really make sure you understand the professor’s research and the degree program in the school you intend to apply to!
2. You cannot get any official acceptance at this point and trying when it is already a month past the deadline may actually hurt your case with that professor (or any professor that you reach out to), since you will look like someone who ignores the rules when they are inconvenient. (I know what you’re trying to do and I’m not accusing you, I’m just trying to picture how we would have responded at my university if we received such a message.)
3. In general, you should just list the universities and professors on your Placement Preference Form and submit it without contacting them. That’s the MEXT expectation and, as I described in 2, I don’t think that asking if universities can accept you at this point will make a good impression. You could contact the professors directly as a courtesy, to let them know that you have applied to the MEXT Scholarship and have expressed in your application that you would like to study under them, but that you were not able to reach out to them before the deadline to request Letters of Provisional Acceptance. You could ask for their kind consideration if MEXT contacts them to formally request them to accept you, but I would not recommend that you request them to give you any formal or informal confirmation of acceptance now.
Good Luck!
– Travis
Thank you for your comprehensive answer to my questions! To elaborate on my question 1. I submitted my application officially through the university, and they forwarded it to the graduate school. Here is the rephrased of their message to me:
“Your application has been forwarded to your desired graduate school, and has been carefully reviewed by the faculty members. However, We regret to inform you that the university is not able to issue you the Letter of Acceptance”.
So, I am not sure whether the university itself rejects me and therefore, I should not list (as you said) the same university on the Placement Preference Form despite being a different graduate school. OR the professor/graduate school rejects me, so I still can put another professor/graduate school within that SAME university on my Placement Preference Form?
I may ask for your opinion/suggestion further on this matter.
Thank you so much again for your throughout and quick reply!
Pookan
Hi Pookan,
Thank you for the update.
Unfortunately, your application would fall into the category of rejected by the university, since you had submitted the application to formally request a LoPA. So, I cannot recommend listing the same university again with a different graduate school.
The only exception, I suppose, would be if you had originally chosen a graduate school that teaches only in Japanese (which would have likely been the reason for your rejection) and you wanted to change to another one that teaches in English, but that’s a pretty rare situation, so it’s almost certain that you’ll have to find an alternative university.
Good Luck!
– Travis
Hello again Travis,
Thank you for your clarification, it is just unfortunate to hear that you cannot put a different graduate school in a same university that rejected to provide LOPA for you.
My main concern is that my research plan is a comparative study of Tokyo and my country’s city. So, I am not sure if it is a good idea for me to put universities outside of Tokyo in my Placement or not? Or that I should put only universities that are in Tokyo or the Kanto area?
I may once again ask for your suggestion on this matter and thank you very much.
Pookan
Hi Pookan,
After our last exchange, I double-checked the Japanese guidelines about Letters of Provisional Acceptance. While the English guidelines say that you “should not” request an acceptance letter from another faculty member or graduate school at a university that rejected your application, the Japanese application guidelines actually say that you “must not.” So I think we can establish that it is not allowed.
As for considering universities outside Tokyo, it depends on how much time you need to spend on fieldwork inside Tokyo and how far away you go. If you are studying Tokyo but don’t need to physically be there for your research activities, then you could be outside the city. If you choose a university with easy access to Tokyo, that should be fine, too. If being physically present for field research is an issue, check the transportation distances from other universities into your destination in Tokyo.
Of course, the most important factor is whether or not the university has a program and professor specialized in your particular research area!
Good Luck!
– Travis
Hello,
Research preference placcement form.
As the form is submitted twice and LOPAs are delivered by the universities but the field you put on the research proposal form is not well clarified as specied by the japanese service of promotion of sciences chart,
Question:
1. If for example during the first screening someone marked ”public Management and policies studies”( it must be in social sciences) as field of what He/She wants to study and during the period of seeking lopas from Universities He/She finds that among the list of Universities in MEXT program of that academic year none has specifically the same field but related ones. despite getting the LOPA in related field for example ” Global business and management studies” , could someone fill the placement form with what marked on the form of research proposal ” in the blank line” of field of study in Japan and detailed field one or put what stated on the Lopa received?
2. If so, is there any negative impact for the last screening?
Regards!
Hi NIJIMBERE Emmanuel,
You only need to submit your question once. I am not an AI and cannot answer instantly, so please don’t keep submitting it if you don’t see an answer right away.
I think you’re overthinking and worrying a bit too much about this form! After you’ve passed the Primary Screening and received your LoPAs, the important part of the Placement Preference Form is the list of universities. What you write in your field of study isn’t that important, as long as it’s close.
1. I’m actually not sure if you can change the field of study when you resubmit the form, so you should check with the embassy to be sure. I know that you can change the list of universities and professors (sometimes it’s necessary!) but your field of study should not have changed significantly. Your field of study should be based on your Field of Study and Research Program Plan, not necessarily on the name of the graduate school or department where you will study in Japan. Unless your LoPA specified a completely different research field than what you originally proposed, then I don’t think you should change this section.
2. I cannot say for sure. If your research field changed, then it might affect the embassy’s willingness to nominate you to MEXT for the secondary screening. They selected you in the primary screening based on your original field, so if that has changed significantly, that could be a problem. For the actual secondary screening at MEXT, though, it shouldn’t be a problem, since they won’t know that it’s a change!
Good Luck!
– Travis S.