Getting Ready 2026A

We believe that you have received your acceptance notice along with the "Welcome Guide". Please make sure to download and save the package to your local environment for easy access and reference.
Please read the Welcome Guide carefully and follow the steps in the order provided to complete all required procedures. 

The Welcome Guide provides detailed instructions regarding the following:

1. Applying for your COE and student visa

   • Receive instructions via email by early May 

   • CoE application by June 5

2. Submitting the Health Questionnaire

   • All students must complete and submit the Health Questionnaire by May 7. This applies to everyone, even if you do not need accommodations. The form is included in the Welcome Guide (page 5).

3. An Overview of Housing Options 

   • USTEP students may apply to stay in one of the UTokyo residence halls as well as communal student housing offered by private organizations. Further details will be provided in late May.

• Arrival Deadline

You must enter Japan by September 28, 2026, to attend the mandatory orientation on September 29. If you do not arrive by September 28 and miss the orientation, your admission will be cancelled. 

• Accommodation Move-In Dates

UTokyo dormitory move-in period will be from October 1 to 7 (TBD).

Note: The exact move-in date may vary depending on the dormitory. Be sure to confirm your specific accommodation details from the housing information or the housing website.  

• Purchasing plane tickets is solely your responsibility.

Make sure your accommodation is confirmed before purchasing your tickets. Plan your entry into Japan by counting back from your move-in date or the USTEP orientation date (whichever is earlier). Your move-in date may vary depending on whether you are moving into a UTokyo dormitory, an apartment, or a share house. 

• You must enter Japan with a valid student visa and a scanned copy of your CoE.

Be sure to print out the scanned data just in case. You cannot apply for a student visa within Japan. If you come to Japan without obtaining a student visa, your admission to UTokyo may be cancelled.

• Check your vaccination record to prevent health problems while traveling!

Having unexpected health problems while traveling abroad may cause trouble, such as delayed consultation and treatment due to language and financial issues. Some infectious diseases can be prevented by vaccines. Therefore, it is important to check your vaccination record before traveling and consider which vaccines you need to protect yourself from such infectious diseases and prevent the spread to others. Some vaccines require multiple doses, so please consult with your doctor about the type of vaccines and vaccination schedule as soon as possible before traveling. More details: https://www.japan.travel/en/guide/vaccines-for-japan/ 

• USTEP Type U Online Guidance: Friday, September 11 (10:00am / 4:00pm)(Zoom)

This information session will cover a variety of topics that you will need in your life at UTokyo, ranging from course registration and other class-related matters to healthcare and support for your daily life. Details will be annouonced.

• USTEP Type U Orientation & Welcome Gathering: Tuesday, September 29

We'll celebrate your joining to UTokyo at Yasuda Auditorium in the Hongo Campus! Your fellow USTEP Partners will welcome you and conduct the campus tour afterwards. Details will be annouonced. 

Students will register for courses at the beginning of each semester from early April (Spring semester) or early October (Autumn semester). Please start planning your timetable and checking courses. Please be reminded that USTEP Type U students are only allowed to take courses listed in the USTEP Type U Course Catalogue.

• The courses currently listed in USTEP Type U Course Catalogue are for the 2026 academic year (April 2026 to March 2027). 

• For the 2027 academic year (April 2027 to March 2028), please fix your timetable after the course information is updated in the course catalogue in mid-March 2027. (Courses in the Faculty of Engineering will be updated in late March.) 

*Courses held in the S semester (Spring; April to September) are denoted by “S1S2/S1/S2“ in the field labeled “Semester” in the course catalogue, and courses labeled with “A1A2/A1/A2” will be held in the A semester (Autumn; October to the following March). 

*Please DO NOT send inquiries regarding the course content directly to the Course Catalogue contact email.

*At this moment, you are not eligible to use the university’s online systems (such as UTAS and UTOL). Please wait until you are provided with a UTokyo Account and instructed to activate it. (Account distribution is scheduled for mid-September.)

(Reference) Courses at UTokyo／授業の履修 - 2. Academic Schedule 

(Reference) Courses at UTokyo／授業の履修 - 3. Course Registration Guidance  

USTEP Type U Stduents may take credit-bearing Japanese Language Courses offered by College of Arts and Sciences (Komaba Campus) and Faculty of Engineering (Hongo Campus). 

In order to enroll in these courses, students are required to complete procedures such as taking preliminary survey and placement tests, or registering online, as instructed by each offering department, on the designated dates or within the specified periods. Please note that if you fail to complete these procedures—regardless of the reason—you will not be allowed to take the course.

These schedules and details are usually announced via email. (Please pay special attention to the preliminary survey for the College of Arts and Sciences at Komaba, which is typically conducted a few months before your program begins.) 

Specific dates will also be included in the "Program Timeline & To-Do List" 

(Important Notes)

• Please reminded that there is a restriction on the number of Japanese Language Course class sessions you can take per week. When planning your course schedule, please make sure not to exceed this limit.

• Your course level will be determined by a placement test/level check test conducted by each faculty. However, in some cases, you may be assigned to courses that exceed the weekly session limit (For example, a course that meets four times a week, which counts as four class sessions per week). Even in such cases, you are not allowed to register for more sessions than permitted. Please be sure to select and register for courses that stay within the allowed number of sessions per week.

For those who are looking for non-credit courses, the Japanese Language Education Division, Center for Global Education (Center for Japanese Language Education) offers non-credit online Japanese language courses available to USTEP Type U Students. Their courses will NOT be counted as a part of the required 6 periods a week or restriction on the number of class sessions of Japanese Language Courses mentioned in the Course Registration Guidance page. 

(Reference): Courses at UTokyo／授業の履修  - 3. Course Registration Guidance / 6. Japanese Language Courses

In order to enroll in seminars offered by the Faculty of Law, students must first submit an application essay for each seminar they wish to attend around three weeks before the start of the program, by the designated date.  Application details will be announced by email.  

(Reference) Courses at UTokyo／授業の履修  - 9. Important Notes for Courses of the Faculty of Law 

• General Information about Courses at UTokyo

Please carefully review the following section: Courses at UTokyo／授業の履修 

• Living Expenses / Prices

The minimum estimated breakdown of living expenses for USTEP students is as follows. 

• • Monthly Rent / accommodation fee: Approximately JPY 80,000

  • Monthly Food expenses: Approximately JPY 30,000

  • Monthly Transportation / Others: Approximately JPY 10,000

Make sure you have enough information in advance about your living expenses to avoid financial difficulty.

• Bank Accounts

There are two ways to open a bank account: one is to open an account during the on-campus account opening service period (the International Education Promotion Group of UTokyo (USTEP office) will give you more details by email as soon as we know the schedule), and the other is to open an account yourself at banks/website. When opening a bank account, you will need to show your residence card with your address listed at the back of the card, your student ID or a certificate of enrollment, and your personal seal. (In some cases, a signature can be used instead of a seal.)

• Credit Card

Please research and decide in advance how to bring money with you to Japan (e.g. opening an account and creating a credit card with a bank in your country that also operates in Japan, using a money transfer service, etc.). Credit cards are required for many services in Japan (e.g. contracts with cell phone companies), so we recommend that you apply for one before coming to Japan, as foreign nationals may find it difficult to apply for one in Japan.

• Part-time Job

UTokyo does NOT encourage USTEP students to engage in part-time work. If students wish to do so, however, they are required by law to obtain a proper work permit before starting part-time work.

The work permit (“permission to work outside the status of residence”) may be obtained at the airport when entering the country or at the Immigration Services Agency of Japan nearest you after entering the country. Receiving compensation without obtaining this permit is a violation of Japanese Law.

(Reference) https://www.isa.go.jp/en/applications/procedures/16-8.html

• Procedures After Arriving in Japan

There are several important procedures you need to take after arriving in Japan, such as applications for Residence Registration, National Health Insurance, My Number System, National Pension. For more details, please see the following page: After Arriving in Japan 

• National Health Insurance (NHI) (Mandatory after arriving in Japan)

USTEP students must enroll in the National Health Insurance (NHI) Program regardless of whether they may already have obtained insurance in the home country. This is a strict legal requirement in Japan. To enroll in the NHI, you must go to the relevant section in the municipal office where you register your address, taking your residence card with you. 

• Travel Insurance (Strongly recommended) 

Since the aforementioned National Health Insurance (NHI) becomes effective only after you complete your residence registration, we strongly recommend that you enroll in an insurance plan in your home country that covers your travel period as well as the time between your arrival in Japan and the activation of your NHI.

Please note that when NHI is applicable, you are responsible for only 30% of the medical costs. However, if NHI is not yet active, you must pay the full amount out of pocket. There have been cases in which students required hospitalization before the program started and had to bear extremely high medical expenses entirely on their own.

For these reasons, we strongly encourage you to secure adequate insurance coverage before coming to Japan.

• Other Health/Medical Services

There are other health-related services available to USTEP Type U students while enrolled at the University of Tokyo. For more details, please refer to the following page: 2.  Health/ Wellbeing