MEXT research scholarship – what happens after you arrive?

This post is mostly about my personal experience. Generally people don't share much about their experiences after arriving compared to the application stage so I can't say whether this is representative or not.



Sooo before you go the embassy will give you a plane ticket and if you're lucky the university will offer you a good dorm place. I didn't get the dorm places I applied for near the campus and so I booked a room in a sharehouse. Some of the other MEXT students were in dorms very far from the place where the Japanese lessons were (1-1.5 hours) and it seemed like they might have been better off finding their own place even if it was quite a bit more expensive. I say “dorms” but most of these were like mini studio apartments with personal bathrooms and tiny kitchens.

[EDIT July 2017: If you have any intention to get a part-time job during your "research student" period, ask the immigration official when they issue your residence card at the airport. They'll probably just give you the permission stamp. If you apply later it's more effort and can take weeks if you're unlucky. I don't understand this at all but welcome to Japan.]

Once you've made your way to your accommodation and slept off the jet lag the main two things you have to do are a) register your address and sign up for health care at the ward office and b) open a post office account for the scholarship. I think there were Japanese people assigned to help students in the dorms complete these tasks(?) The second wasn't too difficult for me but only because I had done my research before and spoke Japanese. I suggest if you don't speak Japanese then at least go to a post office in a touristy area (or rope a Japanese-speaking person into coming with you…). I think there's quite a lot of information online about these procedures too.

Many people have the problem that you need a phone number to open a bank account, but you need a bank account to get a phone number. In my case at the post office I used the phone number of my research group's secretary and they said it was fine – I actually got the impression it would have been fine if I hadn't written down any phone number but maybe it was just that, an impression.


After these steps we had an endlessly long orientation and Japanese test placement. They also told us about further necessary procedures:

-activate our student cards and online language course accounts

-apply for insurance from the university for our own health (about 1000 yen/year) and personal liability (about 1700 yen/year + 4000 yen deposit)

-go to a health check-up at the university (free)

-activate our library cards if we want

One procedure they oddly neglected to inform us about is that you should register with the National Pension scheme. You should go to the ward office again with your student ID card and residence card. Students not enrolled on a degree course are exempt from payments but you are still supposed to apply for this exemption. I'm not sure what happens if you neglect to tell them, but best to be on the safe side. It took me a few weeks to go there and register because I didn't know about it, but it wasn't a problem.

The Japanese test seemed weirdly hard but I did get placed in the advanced course as I wanted. I don't know how many others were happy with their placement but there was the possibility for adjustment or to substitute some classes from a different level if they were too easy/difficult.

Getting a phone number can be a bit tricky. I went with a plan from Rakuten Mobile which allowed me to set up a direct monthly payment from my bank account (at a fee of 100 yen per payment, but I didn't have a debit or credit card...). It's possible to apply entirely online as long as you can read Japanese. Anyway I advise that you avoid the big-name carriers (SoftBank, Docomo, AU) unless you absolutely have to use them, because they're incredibly expensive.

After about a month you will be given an invoice to pay the taxes on your flight and any other travel costs. You can pay this at the post office with cash or from your bank account. If you can't work out how to transfer using the ATM you can just hand the invoice to the staff, although this makes the transfer fee a little bit more. These days post office ATMs also have English options.

You will have to sign in person at the international office in order to receive your scholarship each month. If you remember to sign towards the beginning of each month, you will receive it near the end, around 20-25th.

After nearly 2 months I still haven't really started my own research, I've mostly been occupied with the Japanese lessons. I have to say I'm very happy with my life here so far and for me it was definitely worth the complicated application procedure!