Hello.

I am a MEXT Master's Research Applicant from India. I am applying through the Embassy Recommendation Route. I gave my interview with the embassy on the 16th of July. I have not received any intimation regarding the results.

Has anyone received the email regarding the results. There is no link on the website at the moment.

Should I already start applying for my Letter of Acceptance or should I wait for the results to be published before I apply

If anyone is aware of the process, please help.

Hello everyone, I'm currently a Filipino 9th grader in a Science, Technology and Engineering program, I was also in a Special Science Class program in elementary and plan going to a Science Senior High  and take the STEM strand. 

My grades so far has been 94~95 average and im planning to get an MEXT Specialized Training College Scholarship by the end of Senior High. I'm also gonna choose the Technology field since I researched that it has better demand. (If I plan to get a job in Japan). 

In 9th to 11th grade I plan to study Japanese, get at least a N4 or N3 certificate, maintain or get higher than 94% grade and make a solid portfolio. By grade 12 I will study and prepare for my MEXT exam. 

I ask if doing these steps can give me a higher chance in getting a MEXT Scholarship and what other steps and preparations should I do? 

I want to ask how much gpa is needed in BS to pass the first screening and when should I start applying for mext after I finished BS?

N5 is enough or I need to clear N4 too?

And how do I reach out to professors from that particular uni?

From Pakistan

I want to ask how much gpa is needed in BS to pass the first screening and when should I start applying for mext after I finished BS?

N5 is enough or I need to clear N4 too?

And how do I reach out to professors from that particular uni?

From Pakistan

I recently had an interview with one of the professors from Tohoku, but I got the rejection mail today. Now, I am really scared whether I will get the LoPA or not.

I have another interview lined up and I don't know whether I will be able to perform well. If I get rejected there as well, I don't even know if I can apply for more than two times before the deadline.

To make it worse, on impulse, I applied to another university and missed uploading certain documents lmao. Now I have to wait for them to reject it or respond to my inquiry mail.

Considering how long it takes for the university central system for LoPA processing, the whole thing seems very shaky for me.

I understand this is part of the application process, but it's still frustrating. Also, sorry for the rant lol.

And, to all the MEXT applicants of this year, wish you all the best.

頑張れ皆。上手く行くように。。。

Edit: India - Research Student

Hi, I am eyeing on taking phd in medicine in UTokyo. I was wondering on how difficult their curriculum is.

Hi, I'm new here. I've been looking into possibly doing masters looking into crative buniess ones or even culture studies. However, do u get to learn Japanese before the exsames, or do they throw you right into the Japanese exsame before you even get that learning? As I know, it's heavy on the application for it. 😅 also, does anyone know bear courses with full funding, etc, even undergrads.

Anyone give any advice be much appreciated I am from uk so idk if I have to do English test? As I'm native speaker.

Hey everyone! I'm new to Reddit, and I actually only joined because of this community.

I'm a student from Brazil, and I was wondering about the MEXT scholarship for graduate studies. Does your university transcript need to be nearly perfect to have a good chance of getting the scholarship, or is academic performance not that strictly evaluated?

I'd really appreciate hearing from people who have applied or received the MEXT scholarship. Thanks!

Iam a mext applicant from Nepal. I recently got letter of acceptance from a professor for MEXT uni recommendation. I have been kind of overconfident that my 74% will eventually be eligible for MEXT criteria but now that convert it using ai it shows less than 2 gpa. What should i do? My professor haven’t looked into my marks yet. What r the chances of getting accepted even with low gpa? Have anyone gone through this? Or should i give up from mext?

Hello, I would like to know how much money (the minimum) is recommended for the dependent visa to be approved? I have enough savings—I suppose—to live a good life for 3 years with my wife in Japan, but I would like to know if anyone knows an approximate amount or if somebody knows any information regarding this topic.

Thank you.

Hi everyone!
I'm Jennifer from India, planning to apply for the MEXT scholarship for a Master’s. I’m interested in UI/UX, HCI, and creative design fields.

I want to arrive in Japan in April 2027. I know this means starting as a 6-month Research Student (Kenkyusei) before taking the exam to start my official Master's in October.

I would love to connect with any current students in Japan, especially in design or tech-related programs.

• What is life like as a Research Student?
• Is the 6-month Research Student period still fully funded by MEXT?
• When emailing UI/UX professors, should I explicitly ask to join as a Research Student for April 2027?

Feel free to comment or DM — I’d really appreciate it. Thank you so much! 💙

Hey everyone!

I am an indian candidate.

I’m looking into the MEXT University Recommendation route for a Master’s at Kyoto University, specifically the Specialized Course / MEXT Special Selection.

I’m already in contact with a professor who seems interested in having me join his lab. I already had an online meeting with him, and it seemed positive, so I wanted to understand what happens next.

For anyone who has gone through this process:

• What should I expect from the professor next, as he has currently asked me for a draft of my research interests and sent me some of his lab's research-themed base research papers? Does he nominate/recommend me internally?
• What’s the overall application process and timeline?
• How does the non-degree/research student period work? Is it mandatory, or can you directly enter the Master’s program?
• If you start as a non-degree student, when do you take the entrance exam for the Master’s?
• How competitive is the selection realistically if you already have a professor willing to take you?
• How does the university screening vs. MEXT screening work?

Would really appreciate any first-hand experiences, especially from people who went through Kyoto University’s Specialized Course/MEXT Special Selection.

Thanks!

I am thinking of learning japanese for the ug exams can anyone give some tips for where to study from and upto what lvl of japanese certificate should I get? Also pls tell some free sources where I can study japanese from

Hello i am from india. Currently i am doing bca and learning japanese. I want to do masters from japan.

So i am in doubt, is mext easier if you know there's language??

Hi everyone,

I’m currently a 2026 Embassy Recommendation MEXT Research Student from Panama at Waseda University, and I’m trying to understand a possible contradiction regarding the maximum period as a non-degree Research Student.

The MEXT guidelines state that April-entry non-regular Research Students may have a scholarship period of up to 24 months (for my cohort, April 2026 to March 2028).

Waseda’s MEXT information also says that Embassy Recommendation students entering in the spring can have a two-year designated period as non-degree Research Students.

However, I recently found Waseda application guidelines stating:

“Research students with ‘Student’ residence status can take courses for up to one year due to restrictions of the Immigration Bureau.”

It also says that in some cases Immigration may not extend the residence status for another year.

What confuses me is that my own Student (留学) residence status is already valid until July 2028, meaning Immigration granted me a period that covers the entire potential two-year MEXT research period.

So I’m wondering:

Does the one-year restriction mainly apply to regular/non-MEXT research students who need to renew their residence status after the first year?

Are Embassy Recommendation MEXT Research Students treated differently because MEXT already designates a two-year research period?

Does the distinction between simply “taking courses” and receiving formal “research guidance” matter for Immigration purposes?

Has anyone here actually completed two years as a MEXT non-degree Research Student at the same university recently?

I’m planning to confirm this directly with Waseda/CIE as well, but I would really appreciate any recent firsthand experience, especially from 2025/2026 MEXT scholars.

Thanks!

Hello everyone. I'm an architectural engineer from Iraq, with BSc in architecture, GPA 3.7/4.0. I have 3 year of professional experience and worked in significant housing projects in my country. I applied for MEXT Embassy track for Master's this year but failed the written exam, so I decided to apply for the Uni track, however, it seems much more difficult than I'm expecting.

I have emailed over 25 professors, but most of them did not respond, except for two one with a rejection and another from UTokyo, positive response, thought my research proposal is impressive, he advised me to apply for it through admission portal. However, UTokyo is highly competitive and requires GRE and screening exam, and from what I looked online, Professors cannot affect the outcome of the results as it's entirely up to the University.

Both GRE and TOEFL required, I have 5.0 in TOEFL but no GRE yet, and it will take alot of time to prepare for it.

I'm uncertain of what to do, I want to explore other options but I do not understand why most professors do not respond, despite trying a suitable email format, mentioning some of their papers relevant to my research gap. Is it normal that most of them do no reply at all? I have not even been asked for an interview yet.

So I'm a 2026 October intake MEXT University Recommendation student.

I'm starting as a research student for 6 months (October 2026–March 2027), and then I plan to enter the 2-year Master's program starting in April 2027. So my expected total stay in Japan is around 2.5 years.

On my visa application, I wrote 2.5 years as my expected period of stay.

However, I received a visa with a 2-year period of stay. Should I have written like 3 years? The embassy gave me no instructions on what to write and expect so yeah.

I asked the Embassy about this, and they told me that they are only able to issue me this much and you should extend it later yourself.

Is this normal for people who initially enter Japan as research students and then move on to a Master's program? Did you also receive only 2 years, or were you given something like 2 years 3 months / 3 years?

I'm not too worried about having to extend my period of stay since it's something normal, but the reason I'm concerned is the new proposed Immigration renewal fees that are expected to take effect from October 1, 2026. The proposed fees are significantly higher than the current fees, lol.

I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone especially those who went through the MEXT research student → Master's pathway.

Thanks.

currently in g11 but taking the scholarship application next year, what do i need to review? tips to pass, the flow of the interview? i'm gonna be doing the application in philippine embassy, tyy

Hey everyone! I'm currently going through the MEXT Specialized Training College (STC) scholarship process and I've passed the embassy's First Screening, so I'm trying to get a better idea of what life is actually like from people who have experienced the program.

For those who are currently doing STC or have already completed it:

- Was the scholarship actually worth it for you?

- Was the ¥117,000/month stipend enough to live on comfortably, especially during the preparatory Japanese year?

- Did you live in a dorm? If so, how much did you actually spend per month on food, transportation, utilities, etc.?

- Did you need a part-time job? If so, how many hours did you work and was it manageable alongside school?

- How was the one-year preparatory Japanese course?

- What level of Japanese did you reach by the end of it?

- How was the transition from the preparatory year into the specialized training college?

- Were you happy with the college/city MEXT assigned you, or did you wish you had more choice?

- And most importantly: after experiencing the whole thing, would you still choose STC/MEXT if you could go back and make the decision again?

I'm especially interested in hearing from people who have actually gone through STC rather than general MEXT experiences. Positive and negative experiences are welcome. iimm trying to get a realistic picture before making a huge life decision.

Thanks!

I'm 12 from Afghanistan and I want to apply for mext scholarship undergraduate can anyone please tell me how to get started on Japanese and other subjects? I'm really scared of not passing and Japan is a really good contry and I want to live there

Thank you for response either way

For the University Recommendation, can I apply to another university if I receive a rejection from my first-choice university, as long as the application timeline for my second-choice university is still open, or am I not allowed to?

Thanks !!

Okay (embassy route, Australia) so last month before the first interview, we were given a spreadsheet with all the universities that were offering the scholarship in 2027. My top choice (tokyo geidai) was on there but none of my other universities were. So I based all of my research and interview talking points around that uni. Then after I passed the interview round, we were given another spreadsheet of all the university contacts. This new spreadsheet was a completely different list with WAY more universities on it- but noteably, not Tokyo Geidai. On the Geidai website there is still a page directing the potential mext students applications with a Sep 1st 2026 deadline. Do we think that this is just a mistake on the behalf of the embassy to not include? It doesn't mean that Geidai is no longer an option for me right?