Em Casalena Last updated: A Straightforward Guide to the MEXT Scholarship
Traveling and studying abroad can be expensive—you have to consider travel costs, food, housing, transportation, tuition and a ton of other expenses. For Japanese learners, there’s the option of the MEXT Scholarship.
I’m running through everything you need to know about this Japanese study abroad opportunity, from what it is and how to apply, to all the requirements you need to meet to qualify for a free semester (or more) of schooling in Japan.
Contents
- A Summary of the MEXT Scholarship Japan
- Eligibility for the MEXT Scholarship
- Why Should I Apply for the MEXT Scholarship?
- Types of MEXT Scholarships
- How Do I Apply for the MEXT Scholarship?
- What to Do if You Don’t Receive the MEXT Scholarship
- And One More Thing...
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
A Summary of the MEXT Scholarship Japan
The MEXT Scholarship stands for “the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Scholarship” and is also known as “Monbukagakusho.”
It’s a scholarship given out each year to help foreign students enroll in Japanese universities.
If you successfully qualify for the MEXT Scholarship, you’ll receive:
- A monthly stipend:
- ¥120,000 yen per month for undergraduate students.
- ¥146,000 yen per month for Japanese Intensive Course students and research students.
- ¥147,000 yen per month for master’s program students.
- ¥148,000 yen per month for doctoral program students.
- An economy class air ticket to Narita or Haneda International Airport in Japan. (Currently, the MEXT Scholarship doesn’t cover additional travel costs from the airport.)
- Waived university fees:
- Application fees
- Admission fees
- Tuition fees
Roughly, you’ll receive around a minimum of $1,000 USD per month to live, eat and travel in Japan and have all your tuition costs covered.
Eligibility for the MEXT Scholarship
No matter which level of the scholarship you apply for, there are two main requirements for getting accepted:
- Get recommended by a Japanese embassy or consulate general.
- Get recommended by a Japanese university of your choice that accepts you for study.
You’ll achieve the first through the application process, which requires a form to be sent to your local Japanese embassy. You’ll achieve the second by applying to different Japanese universities and noting in your submissions that you’re applying for the MEXT Scholarship Japan.
Two more key stipulations are that you must be a citizen of a country that has diplomatic relationship with Japan and you must have a valid student visa.
The application for the 2024 MEXT Scholarship Japan has now closed. Applications for the 2025 MEXT Scholarship are expected to open in April 2024, and close in June (the exact deadline date varies between embassies.)
Why Should I Apply for the MEXT Scholarship?
If any (or all!) of the following apply to you, then it’s worth trying out for this golden opportunity:
- You’re interested in studying abroad in Japan.
- You want to improve your Japanese language skills through an immersive experience at a Japanese school.
- You want to attend school for free.
- You’d like to have money to live in Japan while studying in school.
- You want to travel but want to have a larger purpose or objective while doing so.
- You want to learn more about Japanese modern culture and meet Japanese people.
Types of MEXT Scholarships
There are multiple types of MEXT Scholarships one could look into and each of them have unique requirements that must be met. In addition to meeting the following requirements, you’ll also need to pass one or a few examinations in order to receive a recommendation from an embassy.
Research Student Scholarship
This scholarship is for those who are enrolled or want to be enrolled in a master’s, doctoral or professional graduate course and want to conduct research in a particular field in Japan. Typically, these students are linguistic or cultural studies majors.
Requirements:
- Be under 35 years old.
- Be a college graduate or have completed 16 years of schooling.
- If you haven’t graduated yet, apply for this MEXT Scholarship before the expected day of departure as a scholarship holder.
Undergraduate Student Scholarship
This type of scholarship is for fresh high school graduates who want to start college in Japan.
Requirements:
- Be between 17 and 22 years old.
- Have completed 12 years of education or have a high school diploma.
- If you haven’t graduated yet, wait to apply until the year you’re expected to graduate.
Specialized Training College Student Scholarship
This scholarship is for foreign students who wish to spend up to three years at a Japanese technical or vocational college.
Requirements:
- Be between 17 and 22 years old.
- Have completed 12 years of education or have a high school diploma.
- If you haven’t graduated yet, wait to apply until the year you’re expected to graduate.
Japanese Studies Scholarship
This is essentially the “exchange student” scholarship. You’ll go to Japan for a certain amount of time to study, then return to your home institution.
Requirements:
- Be between 18 and 30 years old.
- Have completed 12 years of education or have a high school diploma.
- Be enrolled as an undergraduate student in a country outside of Japan before applying and be able to return to that institution upon your return from Japan.
- Major in Japanese language or Japanese culture.
It’s worth noting that some students may be interested in a Japanese scholarship if they study particular aspects of Japan, such as economics or engineering. While you won’t qualify for the MEXT Japanese Studies Scholarship, it could be worth looking into the JASSO Student Exchange Support Program.
How Do I Apply for the MEXT Scholarship?
Here’s a simple 10-step plan to follow in order to apply for the scholarship, which takes into account the requirements and other aspects of the application process:
- Have or acquire a passport. Depending on your home country, there are many different ways to go about this.
- Acquire a Japanese student visa.
- Be between 17 and 35 years of age, depending on which scholarship you decide to apply for.
- Be a citizen of the country you reside in and be sure that the country has diplomatic relations with Japan.
- Be aware of important dates related to applying.
- Select a university in Japan that you want to attend and submit an application to that school ahead of time. It’d be wise to apply to multiple schools of interest.
- Study past examination questions to improve your chances of getting the scholarship.
- Fill out an application online by the designated deadline.
- Submit all application materials to an Embassy or Consulate General of Japan near your area.
- Have at least an elementary level of Japanese before applying—you will need to pass a Japanese exam in most cases to receive an embassy recommendation.
What to Do if You Don’t Receive the MEXT Scholarship
Maybe you’re afraid of applying for the MEXT Scholarship and failing. Maybe you’ve received a letter telling you that you, unfortunately, don’t qualify.
Don’t fret. Students apply for scholarships of all sorts and don’t qualify for them on a daily basis. Sometimes it isn’t meant to be and you could look into other scholarship opportunities. Sometimes it isn’t meant to be right now and you can always apply for the MEXT Scholarship next year.
It’s also important to remember that you can learn Japanese without going to Japan quite easily, so if that’s a major reason that you want to apply for this scholarship, you’re in luck. In-person and online Japanese classes, courses and lessons are abundant all over the world. Some are completely free.
But even the paid options can still be more affordable than studying in Japan. From tutoring sessions on italki to contextual learning through Japanese media clips with interactive subtitles on FluentU, online Japanese immersion is more accessible than ever.
FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.
You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download the iOS app or Android app.
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Good luck with your application!
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
And One More Thing...
If you love learning Japanese with authentic materials, then I should also tell you more about FluentU.
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And FluentU has a learn mode which turns every video into a language learning lesson. You can always swipe left or right to see more examples.
The best part? FluentU keeps track of your vocabulary, and gives you extra practice with difficult words. It'll even remind you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. You'll have a 100% personalized experience.
Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)
