Introduction:

MEXT Scholarship is just a scholarship provided by the Japanese government to students all over the world, to international students, basically the government invites students from all over the world to come to Japan and study for free, you actually get money for it. This scholarship is available for graduate and undergraduate student, masters, Phd and specialized training college students. So that's pretty much it. It's just a scholarship provided by the government of Japan

MEXT Scholarship cover all the expenses of tuition fee, accommodation, round air travel expenses and monthly living allowance.

Who can apply for MEXT Scholarship?

So MEXT Scholarship, you can get the MEXT Scholarship for undergraduate, Master’s and PhD, so basically if you just passed high school or if you are studying in high school, you can apply for the undergraduate mixed scholarship, if you are currently in doing undergraduate in your home country, then you can apply to get the MEXT Scholarship for your master's degree or if you are currently doing your master's in your home country, then you can also apply for the MEXT Scholarship to do your PhD, okay, I hope that's clear, so as long as you are in your high school right now, you are eligible to apply for the MEXT Scholarship and come to Japan to do any degree you want.

There are two categories of MEXT Scholarship program

 Embassy track

Process of embassy recommended MEXT Scholarship, so approximately in the month of April, the embassy of Japan of your home country, so basically for example, I am from Pakistan, right, so the embassy of Japan in Pakistan is going to release a notification on their website which says that. We are finally starting the applications of MEXT Scholarship, approximately in the month of April or maybe May, after that they will ask you to submit some documents, but ultimately in the month of April to May, you submit some documents to the embassy and on the basis of those documents.

They shortlist a few students, so this process is known as the document screening process, okay, after this document screening is done, a few students are shortlisted and of those students, they conduct a written examination, so it is usually held in the embassy or somewhere outside, so the written examination consists of subjects like maybe for undergraduate, it's like English, Math’s, Physics, Chemistry and things like that, for Masters, it's English and Japanese, if I remember correctly, so that depends if you are doing Sciences, if you're doing Humanities or what exactly you are applying for, but there's just a written exam, okay, after that written exam, what you have is an interview.

It is approximately a 10 to 15 minute interview and on that, after clearing that interview, up until this point, the process was the same for both UG and PG, for both undergraduate and Master’s, but after this point, the undergraduate students do not have to do anything, okay, the undergraduate students, if they pass the interview, all they have to do is wait and their documents will be sent to Japan for the final screening process and then they will be notified in approximately the month of December, if they get the scholarship or not, okay,

University track

University recommended, it is entirely different from embassy recommended because embassy does not have anything to do with university recommended. What you have to do is you need to go to the each universities websites and every university has their own deadlines. They have their own documents which they need, so for example, I someone from University of Tokyo, so if you want to study in University of Tokyo. You go to a website, you check what kind of documents you need.

What is the application deadline, what is the selection process and then you contact the staff, contact the desk and basically tell them that I'm interested in applying for the MEXT scholarship and they will tell you what exactly do you have to do and which professors you are allowed to contact to, so basically the university recommended process is different for every university. You need to look up the university that you're interested in.

It is very competitive. I think the few things that you need to get, you need to have to get the MEXT scholarship, the most important thing is you need to have some luck, especially when it comes to document screening, because I have seen that people who had like 90 percent in their documents, in their like marks, transcripts were not shortlisted compared to the people who even had like 65 percent or 70 percent, if you have everything right, if you have a good resume, if you are prepared for the written exam and if you know what to write in your application and if you are confident in your interview, so I think it is very much achievable. 

Scholarship Details:

Offered by: Japan Government

Level of Study: Undergraduate, Masters, PhD

Fields of Study:

• Engineering
• Medicine
• Social Sciences
• Humanities
• Natural Sciences
• Arts and Culture
• Information Technology
• International Relations
• Agricultural Sciences
• Environmental Studies

            Scholarship Deadline:

Benefits of the MEXT Scholarship:

This scholarship is totally fully funded Scholarship for international students to study. MEXT Scholarship is the comprehensive financial support it provides. These are main benefits.

1.      Tuition fee Coverage:

Tuition fees for the duration of the study are covered by the MEXT

2.      Monthly Stipend:

This MEXT scholarship provides a monthly allowance for living expenses.

·         Undergraduate: JPY 120,000

·         For MS Program: JPY 144,000

·         For PhD: JPY 145,000

3.      Travel expenses:

MEXT Scholarship will cover round trip airfare from your country to japan.

4.      Accommodations:

Free residence for international student will be provided by universities.

5.      Stipend:

Approximately $1000 and it is more than enough for you to live your life in Japan, even Tokyo

Eligibility Criteria for MEXT Scholarship 2025

For qualify for MEXT Scholarship, Student must have following requirements

Eligible Countries: 

All world countries

            Language Proficiency:

Language requirement is not mandatory for undergraduate or MS some universities offer IELTS (but not mandatory) depend on the chosen field of study

            Age limit:

·         For undergraduate: Applicant must be under 25 years old.

·         For Master’s: Applicant must be under 35 years old.

Application process:

MEXT Scholarship application process have these stages. Please follow these steps.

·         Find Professor / University

Submit your MEXT application in Japanese Embassy in your country or directly through Japanese

·         Required Documents

• Application form
• Research plan for MS Students
• Transcripts and certificates
• Passport or ID
• Recommendation letters
• English proficiency (IELTS/PTE/TOEFL, if applicable)

Submit your application and documents to Japanese embassy in your country or university and ensure that application is submitted before the last date.

Selection process:

• Document screening
• Written Exams
• Interview
• Last selection