Under this new initiative, a portion of the international students being accepted at a university that offers an internationally attractive program for accepting international students are given priority allocation as a Japanese Government Scholarship student. It is available for international research students at the graduate level.

In Japan, a system began in 1982 in which international students accepted to special English-language programs for international students (graduate level) would be given prioritized allocation as a Japanese Government Scholarship student. For a quarter of a century since, many talented international students have been accepted to study in Japan under this system. The current initiative was newly implemented after revision of the existing system in order to provide an even more attractive program to international students.

The Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Monbukagakusho or MEXT) received applications from universities, and after screening, selected 81 university programs for inclusion under this new system. The adopted programs are from a total of 42 universities, both national and private, and the number of Japanese Government Scholarship students who will be given priority allocation is 584.

The university programs were selected from 162 applications, and they area all of an advanced caliber. They also provide an attractive environment for international students because the lectures and research are carried out in English, not Japanese.

For details regarding each of the programs, please refer to the relevant page on the MEXT website. It also lists the contact information for each university where applicants would need to submit their applications. The address is as follows:
http://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/koutou/ryugaku/kokuhi/tokubetu/
07032702.htm

We look forward to many applications being made from your country.

Koichi Maekawa
Professor, Graduate School of Engineering,
the University of Tokyo (Dept. of Civil Engineering)