FAQ for Monbukagakusho Scholarship Candidates
General
- What are the Japanese Government (Monbukagakusho) Scholarships?
- Where should I apply for the Japanese Government (Monbukagakusho) Scholarships?
Documentation
- What is the letter of acceptance?
- What is the certificate of admission? What is the difference between the letter of acceptance and the certificate of admission?
- Who should obtain the letter of acceptance or the certificate of admission?
- What kind of documents should I send to the university?
- To whom should I send the documents?
Communication and Procedures
- How can I find my prospective academic advisor?
- No reply comes back from the professor I sent a message. What should I do?
- What procedures does the university go through until issuance of the certificate of admission or the letter of acceptance? Can I obtain these documents immediately?
- I finally received the certificate of admission or the letter of acceptance. What should I do next?
- If I am finally admitted to the University of Tsukuba, is it possible to get a room in the university dormitory? If it is possible, do I need to apply before coming to Japan?
Further questions
General
What are the Japanese Government (Monbukagakusho) Scholarships?
These are scholarships offered by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology (Monbukagakusho).
Where should I apply for the Japanese Government (Monbukagakusho) Scholarships?
Application for Japanese Government (Monbukagakusho) Scholarships should be made through Japanese embassies or consulates general in your home country. (Applications from overseas are regarded as "Embassy Recommendation" applications.) For detailed information, please contact the nearest Japanese embassy or consulate in your country.
-> Japan's Embassies and Consulates (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Documentation
What is the letter of acceptance?
The letter of acceptance is an unofficial letter to certify that the graduate school of our university has accepted you when you have passed all the screenings. However, please note that we cannot guarantee at this point if you are finally and officially admitted by our university. The prescribed form for the letter of acceptance will be provided by the Japanese embassy or consulate.
The certificate of admission is an official certificate to certify that our university has officially admitted you when you have passed all the screenings.
In contrast, the letter of acceptance will help you to certify to the embassy and the Monbukagakusho that you have made contact with us, even if unofficial contact. However, there may be some cases (very rare) that you are not finally selected by our university for some reason because it is an unofficial acceptance. To avoid this situation, we will make our best efforts to issue the official letter or the certificate of admission, even if in cases we are requested to issue the letter of acceptance.However, please note that we will issue the official certificate of admission only in the following cases: (1) you send us a complete set of documents; (2) the graduate school decides to admit you officially; and (3) the result of the selection is submitted within the deadline in our university.
Furthermore, even if a candidate requests us to issue the official certificate of admission, there are cases we can issue only the unofficial letter of acceptance because candidates do not meet the all conditions mentioned above. Therefore, please be sure to enclose a form of the letter of acceptance when you send us necessary documents.
Who should obtain the letter of acceptance or the certificate of admission?
Since the start of the 2005 academic year, the system was changed so that only people who pass the preliminary examination by the Japanese embassy/consulate can obtain the letter of acceptance or the certificate of admission.
Please note that we do not accept requests for issuance of the letter of acceptance or the certificate of admission if applicants do not enclose a certificate of preliminary selection issued by the Japanese embassy/consulate general concerning documents you sent us.
In case you are a substitute and not a regular candidate, you can start to make contact with a prospective academic advisor for preparation when you become a regular candidate, however your prospective academic advisor cannot undertake the necessary procedures until you obtain a certificate of preliminary selection. In this case, please do not forget to tell the advisor that you are just a substitute at this time.
What kind of documents should I send to the university?
The application guide to the Monbukagakusho Scholarships says that you are required to send the following documents to the university of your choice:
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5. SELECTION AND NOTIFICATION
(6) Each candidate must submit to the university of his/her choice a set of the same documents as those submitted to the Japanese legation （application, academic transcript of the university attended, research program, all with a confirmation seal of the Japanese legation affixed, and a certificate of the primary selection issued by the Japanese legation）. Additional documents may have to be submitted upon request of the university.
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(* As of 2011. Please refer to the most recent guide you are provided with by the embassy/consulate)Additional documents will vary depending on the policy of the graduate school and the academic advisor you are contacting, so please confirm this with them.
PDF files, scanned images or papers sent by facsimile, or copies without confirmation seals of the Japanese legation affixed are not acceptable. Therefore, it is essential that you send the original documents to your prospective academic advisor by post.
A "confirmation seal" of the Japanese legation does not need to be an official seal; an unofficial stamp including the name of the embassy/consulate is acceptable.
Also ensure to enclose a letter of acceptance form.
To whom should I send the documents?
Please send them to your prospective academic advisor you are contacting directly.
Communication and Procedures
How can I find my prospective academic advisor?
First, please refer to the following websites.
-> The official website of our university
-> PDF files of the official guidebook of our university
-> The website of the International Student CenterGenerally, we recommend that you get information from the websites of the graduate school of your interest.
-> Link to the list of graduate schools
Also, Please refer to the following website.
-> Tsukuba Researchers Information Online System(TRIOS)
However, unfortunately, the amount of information in English is limited.
For that reason, we provide an English-language "Enrollment Guidebook." It contains lists of faculty members and their research fields. You can download PDF files of the Enrollment Guidebook from the following web page:
No reply comes back from the professor I sent a message. What should I do?
Since July and August are summer vacation season, some faculty members may be absent for vacation or lengthy business trips for field work, etc. As mentioned above, we have over 1,600 faculty members, and unfortunately, the International Student Center does not follow each faculty member's schedule. Please directly inquire at the office of the graduate school of your prospective professor.
-> Link to a list of graduate schools
If you cannot find contact information on their website, there is a list of contacts on the last page in the Miscellaneous chapter of the Enrollment Guidebook.
Note:
There were cases when applicants could not receive a reply from the professors they contacted; if you send an email from a "non-Japanese webmail service", such as Korean, Chinese etc, character mismatches may occur and professors will not be able to read your message even if you type it in Japanese. If you would like to send an email in Japanese from a webmail service, it is strongly recommended to make an account at a Japanese webmail service and send email messages through it.
No, we need a reasonable amount of time for each of the following procedures:
1) Time to find a suitable prospective academic advisor
2) Time to send documents from you to a prospective academic advisor by post
3) Time to investigate your documents
4) Time for communicate about your motivation, skills etc.
5) Time for the screening conference by the graduate school
6) Time to collect other candidates' documents because we handle several applications simultaneously.
7) Time for procedures to obtain official seals
8) Time to send the certificate of admission or the letter of acceptance from the International Student Center to you by post
I finally received the certificate of admission or the letter of acceptance. What should I do next?
Please submit it to the embassy/consulate as soon as possible.
You can get a single room in our university dormitory. The International Student Center will send the list of incoming Monbukagakusho Scholarship students to the dormitory office in advance. You don't need to apply before coming to Japan by yourself.
Please note that, according to our dormitory regulations, research students cannot apply for family dormitory accommodation. If you wish to bring your family, you have to find an apartment off-campus. In addition to accommodation issues, there are a lot of procedures regarding immigration that must be undertaken if you bring your family. We strongly recommend that you come to Japan alone first and bring your family next after necessary procedures.
Further questions
Still I have some questions. To whom should I inquire?
