MEXT Scholarship
This page briefly describes how to apply the scholarship of Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (the MEXT scholarship) sponsored by the Japanese Government.
1. Outline
This page assumes that you apply for the MEXT scholarship (University Recommendation) rather than the MEXT scholarship (Embassy Recommendation).
Upon the applications to the MEXT, you will be ranked in the list of applicants within Fukushima University. We decide the rank based on your CV, study plan, interview results, and our internal discussions. Highly ranked applicants are expected to win the scholarship. Note that the chance of application is just "once a year".
It may take about 9-10 months from your first contact to visiting Japan with scholarship. Then you would be a research student for 6 months in Fukushima university and you need to pass the entrance examination of our graduate course during the 6 months.
There is a preliminary evaluations of applicants within Fukushima university just after your first contact to me, so that we can "recommend" you as a candidate if the MEXT scholarship fellow in terms of your grade transcript obtained from your university in the case of the bachelor's degree holders or from the graduate school of your university in the case of the master's degree holders.
Please visit the following official site for its outline:
https://www.studyinjapan.go.jp/en/planning/about-scholarship/
2. Schedule
The deadline would be set from "the end of January to the middle of February" that may change each year of application where we need to submit by postal mail. To meet the deadline, I suggest you follow the schedule listed below.
(1) Notifying your intention to apply for the MEXT scholarship to "me": By the end of November
(2) Preparing necessary documents for quick internal reviews: By the beginning of January
(3) Revision of necessary documents and their finalization: By the middle of January
(4) Your posting and our receiving the printed documents at Fukushima University: By the end of January
(5) Interviews on telephone, Skype, or similar software: By the Beginning of February
Finally, we would confirm all the documents are ready and we submit them to the MEXT by domestic postal mail.
3. Required documents
The followings are the required documents for the application (Name of document with some explanations, original: need postal mail, Copy: electric file is acceptable, the numeral at the end of each item indicate required quantity).
(1) Application form (a prescribed form, printed on both sides), Original: 1,
(2) Field of Study and Research Plan (printed on both sides), Original: 1,
(3) Recommendation letter from the president or the dean of the candidate’s current enrolled university (To the president of Fukushima University), Copy: 1,
(4) Photograph (4.5×3.5 cm, taken within the past six months, upper body, full-faced, uncapped. Write your name and nationality on the reverse and paste it onto the application form. Digital photographs also acceptable), Original: 1,
(5) Copy of the passport, Copy: 1,
(6) Academic transcript of all academic years of the last university the candidate attended (* Transcript should include specific academic performance indicators such as GPA, rating in class, etc.) that indicate a high academic performance by the candidate, Copy: 1,
(7) Graduation certificate or degree certificate of the last university attended (or an attested document certifying that the applicant will graduate from the university, where applicable), Copy: 1,
(8) Abstracts of theses, Copy: 1,
(9) Certificate of the language proficiency or special skill (ex. TOEFL, TOEIC, Examination for Japanese University Admission Examination for International Students, Japanese-Language Proficiency Test), Copy: 1.
4. Internal selection in our university
Currently, it seems our university can accept up to two MEXT scholarship students every year. Hence, we have to select two applicants who are most suitable as the MEXT scholarship students recommended from our university by means of our internal selection processes.
The internal selection processes consists of evaluations through (1) the documents submitted by applicants and (2) in-person or online interviews for ranking the applicants with respect to our evaluation policy of our university. Here we consider not only the abilities/capabilities but also the balances of faculty, research area, and internal selection history by today in our university.
In conclusion, winning this internal selection processes would be most crucial to secure the MEXT scholarship recommended by our university.
5. Advice to win the scholarship
Your GPA records and your research plan should be the most important documents. We encourage you to study hard for receiving higher GPA, and conduct your bachelor and/or master thesis so that you can write a concrete and deeply considered research plan.
With higher GPA, you will be able to win the intra-university selection process of a single candidate in Fukushima university. Note that we have only one seat for the MEXT scholarship to be recommended from our university each year. A recommendation letter from your university is supportive to win the selection process.
6. Obligations
You must come to our university before the first April to start from the spring-summer semesters or October to start from the autumn-winter semesters. In most cases, a succeeded applicant comes to Japan at the end of September to stay here as a research student for 6 months during which you must pass an entrance examination of our graduate course. If you passed the examination, you enter our graduate course in April.
Expenses of travel to Japan might be covered depending on your application result. So please be prepared to pay for it.
7. Message
This is the MEXT scholarship sponsored by the Japanese government. I think this scheme was designed for the promotion of science, international cooperation between your country and Japan, further development of your country via knowledge and technological transfer, and the better partnership between your country and Japan and more. Sponsored by the Japanese government means that you are expected to work hard so that you can meet the above-mentioned objectives by Japanese citizens (the tax payers). So we want you to enjoy your study in Japan and to benefit all the stakeholders of this scheme.
Please feel free to contact me for more information or clarification via email.
We are looking forward to having you in our group!
Yoshiyuki Yokoo, Ph.D., Professor,
Faculty of Symbiotic Systems Science,
Fukushima University, Japan
yokoo<at>sss.fukushima-u.ac.jp