Types of Japanese Government (Monbukagakusho) Scholarships

As can be seen in the chart below, there are six types of Japanese government-sponsored scholarships available under the Japanese Government (Monbukagakusho) Scholarship program: those for research students, teacher training students, undergraduate university students, Japanese studies students, college of technology students, special training students.

Those wishing to apply for a scholarship should meet one of the criteria listed below:

Recommended by a Japanese embassy or consulate general (Embassy Recommendation).
Recommended by the Japanese university which will accept you (University Recommendation).
Selected by the Japanese university in which you are currently enrolled if you are a privately-financed student already studying in Japan (Domestic Selection).

Japanese Government Scholarships and Their Content
(Fiscal 2019)

	Research student	Teacher training student	Undergraduate student	Japanese studies student	College of technology student	Special training college student
Level of studies	Graduate school level		Undergraduate level
Eligibility requirement	University or college graduate	University, college graduate or equivalent	Secondary school graduate or equivalent	University student (undergraduate level)	Graduates of secondary schools or equivalent
Age limit (at time of granting)	Under 35		At least 17 and under 25	At least 18 and under 30	At least 17 and under 25
Duration	Maximum 2 years including Japanese-language training	Maximum 1 year 6 months including Japanese-language training	5 years including Japanese-language training (7 years for medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and veterinary science)	One academic year	4 years including Japanese-language training(4 and a half years for merchant marines studies)	3 years including Japanese-language training
Preliminary Japanese-language training	6 months (54 universities such as Hokkaido University) Those with sufficient Japanese proficiency are not required to go through preliminary Japanese- language training.		1 year (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and Osaka University)	None	1 year (Independent Administrative Institution: Japan Student Services Organization, Tokyo Japanese Lanugage Education Center)	1 year (Bunka Institute of Language, Independent Administrative Institution: Japan Student Services Organization, Osaka Japanese Lanugage Education Center)
Fields of study	Major in field of specialty at a graduate school	Special training at a teacher training department	Undergraduate education	Japanese language or special training related to Japan	Third year college of technology courses	Post secondary courses
Designated countries	Worldwide (168 countries and regions)	Developing countries, etc. (64 countries and regions)	Worldwide (100 countries and regions)	Worldwide (74 countries and regions)	Developing countries (40 countries and regions)	Developing countries, etc. (49 countries and regions)
Planned number of new scholarship recipients	4,042 people	89 people	460 people	190 people	86 people	90 people
Scholarship stipend	¥143,000～148,000 per month		¥117,000～120,000 per month
Tuition	Tuition for national universities and Institute of National College of Technology waived; tuition for public and private universities paid for by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
Travel allowance	Roundtrip fare (air ticket) provided
Embassy recommendation	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
University recommendation (overseas application)	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No
University recommendation (local acceptance)	Yes	No	Yes (For the final only)	No	No	No
Examination Questions	Click here	-	Click here	-	Click here	Click here

Examinations required for Embassy recommendation

Research students	Japanese, English (only applicants)
Teacher training students	Japanese and English (Both for reference purposes)
Undergraduate students	Japanese , English, mathematics and science (Only science faculty examinees are required to choose two out of the following three subjects: chemistry, physics or biology)
Japanese studies students	Japanese
College of technology students	Japanese , English,mathematics and physics or chemistry
Special training college students	Japanese ,English and mathematics