Culture & Education
Japanese Government Monbukagakusho (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology/MEXT) Scholarships
Research Student Scholarships [2025 applications for Embassy recommendation now closed]
- Applicants must generally be under the age of 35 in the year of departure for Japan and hold at least a bachelor’s degree. It is possible to apply if you are still completing your studies, but applicants must have completed their degree before enrolling in a Japanese university.
- Applicants should apply for the field of study they majored in at university or a related field. No knowledge of Japanese is necessary for many subjects.
- The scholarship is offered for 1 year and 6 months or 2 years from either April or September/October, and includes a 6-month period of preparatory study of the Japanese language, if considered necessary by the accepting university.
- The scholarship covers tuition fees, return airfares to Japan, and a monthly allowance for living costs.
Application materials for the 2026 scholarships will be available in April 2025. If you are not an Irish citizen and wish to apply for a MEXT scholarship, please contact the Embassy of Japan in your home country.
Click here for further information on applying for MEXT scholarships.
For enquiries, please contact the Embassy’s Information & Culture Section at culture@ir.mofa.go.jp.
A report by current Research Student Louise Blennerhassett in Tokyo is available here.
Undergraduate Student Scholarships [2025 applications for Embassy recommendation now closed]
MEXT offers Undergraduate Student Scholarships to Irish students who wish to pursue an undergraduate degree in Social Sciences & Humanities or Natural Sciences in Japan under the Japanese Government (MEXT) Scholarship Programme.
- Applicants must be secondary school graduates or equivalent and aged in principle between 17 and 25 as of April in the year of departure for Japan.
- The scholarship is offered for 5 or 7 years (depending on the field of study) starting in April. This includes 1 year of preparatory education in the Japanese language and other subjects before scholarship students start their undergraduate studies at a Japanese university, unless they apply for direct placement.
- The scholarship covers tuition fees, return airfares to Japan, and a monthly allowance for living costs.
Application materials for the 2026 scholarships will be available in April 2025. If you are not an Irish citizen and wish to apply for a MEXT scholarship, please contact the Embassy of Japan in your home country.
Click here for further information on applying for MEXT scholarships.
For enquiries, please contact the Embassy’s Information & Culture Section at culture@ir.mofa.go.jp.
A report by current Undergraduate Student Sean McLaverty in Yokohama is available on the Embassy website.
Japanese Studies Student Scholarships [2025 applications for Embassy Recommendation being accepted]
The Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) offers Japanese Studies Student Scholarships to Irish undergraduates majoring in fields related to the Japanese language and/or Japanese culture born between 2 April 1995 and 1 April 2007 to study at designated Japanese universities for a period of one year as part of their degree, in order to deepen their understanding of the Japanese language and Japanese culture and affairs.
The scholarship is for one year from September/October 2025 at a university decided by MEXT. However, candidates can state their preference from a selection of universities in their application. MEXT will cover entrance examination, matriculation and university tuition fees, and flights to and from Japan, and provide a monthly allowance of JPY117,000 (subject to change).
Applicants must be undergraduates at the time of arriving in and leaving Japan, and have studied Japanese Studies at a university for a total period of one year or more as of 1 September 2025.
Preferably, successful candidates should have a level of Japanese ability equivalent to Japanese-Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) N2, but this is not an essential requirement.
Guidelines and application materials for the 2025 Japanese Studies Student Scholarships can be downloaded from the Study in Japan website. A full list of application documents and detailed instructions are available on pages 6-7 of the 2025 Application Guidelines.
Study is implemented only in the university study courses listed in the Course Guide of Japanese Studies Program 2025, which provides information on the courses and entry requirements of individual universities. Please note that the Course Guide is divided into 6 separate PDF files.
Applications should be submitted by e-mail to the International Cooperation Unit, Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Marlborough Street, Dublin 1, D01 RC96 at Scholarships@dfheris.gov.ie by Friday, 14 February 2025.
- Please make sure to include your name and “2025 MEXT Japanese Studies Student Scholarship application” in the subject line of your e-mail.
- Please also combine your application documents as PDFs in the numerical order listed in the 2025 Application Guidelines and keep the total file size per PDF file less than 10MB. If your files are larger than this, they should be sent in separate e-mails.
Written Japanese examinations and interviews for shortlisted candidates are expected to take place in person at the Embassy of Japan on Monday, 3 March 2025. This date may change and shortlisted candidates will be notified individually of the date and time of their examinations and interviews. Shortlisted candidates will be required to submit their original paper application documents and 1 set of copies to the Embassy on the day of the examinations and interviews. Submitted documents will not be returned.
Past examination questions for applicants for the Japanese Studies Student Scholarships have not been disclosed by MEXT. Please refer to the Japanese exam papers in the Past Examination Questions for other scholarships.
If you are not an Irish citizen but wish to apply for a MEXT scholarship, please contact the Embassy of Japan in your home country.
For further information, please contact the Information & Culture Section at culture@ir.mofa.go.jp.