I am looking into grad school programs and applying to a few here in the states, but I recently learned that there are universities in Japan that offer master’s or PhD programs taught entirely in English. I am interested in moving back to Japan so I’ve started looking more into these programs, but I wanted to know if anyone had experience with them and could make recommendations as to which programs are worth considering, and if there are any red flags to look for and avoid.
I graduated in 2020 with my bachelor’s degree in Japanese language and international business. Since undergrad, I have been working in an office setting as an administrative assistant. I would be interested in programs involving business analytics or data science. I am looking primarily at programs that would be taught in English as I would like the opportunity to move back to Japan and continue practicing my Japanese, however I don’t believe that I currently possess the necessary fluency level to take a program with full Japanese language instruction.
I’ve done a bit of research on my own but some people will say that Japanese grad school is amazing, while others say that’s miserable; some people speak highly of the universities that offer English language instruction while others say it’s just a ploy and the teachers don’t actually speak English that well. I’m also having a hard time parsing out how much of the information applies to me since I don’t plan on doing research or joining academia after grad school, but most of the threads about grad schools in Japan are geared towards the traditional STEM fields like biology, chemistry, engineering, etc.
Does anyone know of good schools for business that are worth considering? If I do study abroad in Japan, would that help or hurt my job prospects afterwards? Are there any red flags that I should look out for when looking into grad programs in Japan?
I am interested to here if anyone else in this subreddit completed their grad school abroad; I would love to hear your full perspectives on the experience.
Any advice is appreciated; I am willing to answer questions or provide more information if it would help.