Here’s the situation, I’m in the US, on track for graduating about 6ish months after I turn 16. Do I have any chance in getting accepted into university in Japan/getting a student visa?
I think your biggest challenge will be that as someone under the age of 18 you’re not legally allowed to sign any sort of contract.
You can’t open a bank account. You can’t sign up for a mobile phone. You can’t get bicycle insurance. You can’t agree to have medical procedures performed. Etc.
Outside of exceptional circumstances universities are not prepared to provide the level of guardianship that minors require.
I similarly know that both Todai and Kyodai have had international students who were younger than 18.
Some language schools also take kids as young as 14, so that is also a thing.
In both cases it seems possible, yes.
From a practical standpoint? It seems highly unlikely unless you already have high school level Japanese speaking and writing abilities.
Now from a real world: “What should I do?” point of view, get an undergraduate degree where you are, take a minor in Japanese language, work really hard on that and try to get to up to say N1/N2 level (and pass the test.) Then you can apply to graduate school in Japan. Also visit and maybe attend language school one or more of your summers while doing undergrad.
100% of all people I know who were accepted into Japanese undergrad programs either went to sketch schools (have fun with that Bachelors of Typing and Religious Studies in IBM Selectric) or they were excellent students (top 1% of their school) and had native speaking abilities (one or more Japanese parents who actually make sure they spoke well and visited family regularly.)
2 comments
I think your biggest challenge will be that as someone under the age of 18 you’re not legally allowed to sign any sort of contract.
You can’t open a bank account. You can’t sign up for a mobile phone. You can’t get bicycle insurance. You can’t agree to have medical procedures performed. Etc.
Outside of exceptional circumstances universities are not prepared to provide the level of guardianship that minors require.
I similarly know that both Todai and Kyodai have had international students who were younger than 18.
Some language schools also take kids as young as 14, so that is also a thing.
In both cases it seems possible, yes.
From a practical standpoint? It seems highly unlikely unless you already have high school level Japanese speaking and writing abilities.
Now from a real world: “What should I do?” point of view, get an undergraduate degree where you are, take a minor in Japanese language, work really hard on that and try to get to up to say N1/N2 level (and pass the test.) Then you can apply to graduate school in Japan. Also visit and maybe attend language school one or more of your summers while doing undergrad.
100% of all people I know who were accepted into Japanese undergrad programs either went to sketch schools (have fun with that Bachelors of Typing and Religious Studies in IBM Selectric) or they were excellent students (top 1% of their school) and had native speaking abilities (one or more Japanese parents who actually make sure they spoke well and visited family regularly.)