University admission in Japan with people who studied there

English-taught programmes exist in Japan but remain a minority, concentrated in specific initiatives at leading universities. The mainstream route is Japanese-medium study via the EJU examination, run by JASSO twice a year in June and November.

The scale of EJU tells the story: in FY2024 its results were used by 494 of 983 universities, including roughly three quarters of national and public institutions. Without Japanese, in other words, the field narrows sharply.

One further note: requirements for evidencing Japanese proficiency for student status have been tightening. We do not state specific wording or dates here, as this must be confirmed directly with Japan's Immigration Services Agency before applying.

The MEXT (Monbukagakusho) government scholarship comes in two routes: embassy recommendation and university recommendation. It provides tuition exemption, a monthly stipend and round-trip airfare. We do not publish the payment amounts — check them in the annual application guidelines on your embassy's site.

The visa runs through the "Student" (留学) status of residence: your institution applies for a Certificate of Eligibility (COE) at a regional immigration bureau, after which the visa is issued at the embassy. The maximum period of status is 4 years and 3 months.

Study is not free. Per official Study in Japan data, standard tuition at national universities is ¥535,800 per year plus a ¥282,000 admission fee. Since 2024, however, national universities may set fees for international students around 20% above the standard rate — the University of Tokyo, for instance, raised undergraduate tuition from AY2025. Verify figures with the specific university.

Beyond the MEXT scholarship, most national universities run their own tuition exemption system, independent of MEXT and structured differently at each institution — typically based on academic merit and/or financial need. At Yokohama National University, for instance, graduate exemptions follow entrance exam results: the top 10% get a full waiver, the next 20% get 50%, another 20% get 30%. Tsukuba and Niigata apply similar logic, combining academic standing with demonstrated financial hardship.

Separately, JASSO's scholarship for self-financed students (学習奨励費, the Foreign Student Learning Incentive Fee) is not a tuition waiver but a monthly stipend of roughly ¥48,000. Each university receives its own quota and selects recipients by academic performance and financial need, so access depends directly on which university you are admitted to.

Criteria and budgets for these programmes are revised annually and vary widely by university — confirm directly with the international office of the specific institution before applying, rather than planning around the general picture.

In Japan our job is to help build a realistic plan: whether you need a language year, which programmes are genuinely available in English, and how EJU timing lines up with application deadlines.

Write to us if you are considering Japan — we will tell you where this direction stands and what can be done now.