Hello! I’m a Japanese national planning to attend grad school in the US. I qualify for need-based aid from the institution I’ll be attending. However, that amount won’t be nearly enough to cover all of my tuition and expenses, and thus I would need to take out student loans. If I take out loans in the US, it would have to be through a private loan provider (I am ineligible for FAFSA). Moreover, the private loans in question are generally granted at an interest rate at or above 14% to non-resident aliens (which is absurd). Without a US cosigner, this would likely be my only option to borrow in the US. I may be able to get my cousin to be my cosigner, and my interest rate would drop to about 5%, albeit this is unlikely.
So, I’m looking for a bank in Japan that provides educational loans (教育ローン) at a sub-2% interest rate. From my research, it appears Chiba bank （千葉銀行 provides educational loans starting at 2.6% interest rate, which is good, but I’m hoping to find an even lower option.
The amount I intend to borrow is around 40 to 50 million yen (I know, crazy). I understand banks aren’t willing to give this amount to a single student, so my parents will be incurring some of this too under their name, but I will be the one to pay them back eventually.
Any insights into this matter is greatly appreciated. Thank you all in advance!