English-Taught Bachelor's in Japan: What's Actually Open, and What Just Closed

English-taught degrees exist in Japan — but online lists go stale

A separate piece already covers why most applicants to a Japanese university go through EJU and Japanese-medium study. But there is another route: a handful of universities admit undergraduates entirely in English, with no Japanese requirement at the point of admission.

The problem is that many articles and agency sites keep naming the same few programs year after year without checking whether they're still recruiting. At least two of the best-known ones aren't.

Closed: the University of Tokyo's PEAK

PEAK (Programs in English at Komaba) is the University of Tokyo's English-taught bachelor's track, and likely the most recognisable program of its kind in the country. On 12 May 2025 the university announced that the 2026 intake would be its last: no new students are being admitted to PEAK, with internationalisation shifting to a new UTokyo College of Design instead.

Students already enrolled, or admitted in 2026, will finish their degrees as usual. But for an applicant looking for somewhere to apply right now, this program is no longer an option — whatever older articles and lists still say.

Partly closed: Sophia University

Sophia University in Tokyo remains a major player in English-taught undergraduate study — just not across every track at once. The Green Science and Green Engineering programs are taking their last intake in 2026 (autumn entry); a replacement, Digital Green Technology, is in the works but not yet officially approved.

Meanwhile its Faculty of Liberal Arts and the Sophia Program for Sustainable Futures are still accepting 2027 applications — different tracks within the same university, with different statuses, and worth not confusing with each other.

Open now: Waseda and Nagoya

Waseda University's School of International Liberal Studies (SILS) has run an English-taught bachelor's since 2004, one of the first in the country. It admits an international cohort every September; the current application guide for 2027 entry is already published on the faculty's site.

Nagoya University's G30 International Programmes offer 10 undergraduate tracks taught entirely in English, with no Japanese requirement at admission. Applications for 2027 entry open in early November 2026.

For both of these, as with most programs of this kind, admission doesn't run through EJU — it's each university's own process: a school transcript or diploma, international exam scores (usually IELTS/TOEFL, sometimes IB or SAT), a personal statement and recommendations. The exact document list and deadlines differ by program.

What to do with this

English-taught undergraduate study in Japan isn't one fixed list of ten familiar names — it's a field where programs close and open. Before planning a year of preparation around a specific program, check that university's own admissions page rather than a ranked article — even this one.

If the language of instruction is a hard constraint for you — say, you're not willing to spend a year on Japanese first — that's worth working out before you pick a specific university, not after.