Recruiting graduate students

Recruiting graduate students

In order to join our laboratory as an overseas student, first of all, an applicant has to pass either the Examination for Japanese University Admission for International Students (EJU) "Japanese as a Foreign Language" or the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) N1. Both EJU Japanese and JLPT N1 (samples) are very difficult for foreign nationals, so that it is a sad fact that many applicants gave up on the idea of joining our laboratory. The reason why our graduate school requires the highest Japanese language skills is that the classes provided in our graduate school are conducted in Japanese. If an applicant has a willingness to join our laboratory, he/she may be able to take the entrance examination of our graduate school for being a doctoral course student. This is because it does not require any Japanese language skills※1. Needless to say, he/she has to have been received a master's degree.

After passing either EJU Japanese or JLPT N1, the applicant also has to pass the entrance examination of our graduate school. In our graduate school, two types of the overseas student are available. One is Regular Student, the other is Special Student. To put it briefly, the former is an overseas student taking the master's/doctoral program of our graduate school, the latter is one receiving one-year research instruction from a certain professor belonging to our graduate school※2.

Regular Student

A regular student enrolls in our graduate school to take a master's/doctoral degree. The entrance examination of our graduate school includes a documentary elimination and an interview.

Admission policy of our laboratory for a regular student is the followings:

  • An applicant has already decided the research theme in coming his/her graduate student days.
  • An applicant has sufficient knowledge related to the research theme.

Therefore, our professor would like the applicant to discuss his/her research theme before applying the entrance examination of our graduate school. If our professor can recognize that an applicant has sufficient knowledge to conduct a research in coming his/her graduate school days, the applicant can take the entrance examination.

Special Student

A special student enrolls in our graduate school to take some classes or to receive research instruction from a certain professor. As is the case with a regular student, the entrance examination of our graduate school includes a documentary elimination and an interview; however, if an applicant lives outside Japan, he/she takes only the documentary elimination as the entrance examination. The special student is not as same as a research scholar defined by national universities in Japan, so that the special student has to pay academic fees to our graduate school. Moreover, the special student cannot apply for scholarships.

Admission policy of our laboratory for a special student is as follows:

  • An applicant has not decided the research theme in coming his/her graduate student days.
  • An applicant does not have basic knowledge of computer science.

Therefore, our professor would like the applicant to discuss his/her knowledge and capabilities related to his/her interest before applying the entrance examination of our graduate school. If our professor can recognize that applicant's interest has a high affinity to media informatics, the applicant can take the entrance examination.

After taking one-year research instruction, the applicant may want to be a regular student of our graduate school. If that happens, the applicant has to take the entrance examination of our graduate school once more. This is because our graduate school has no procedure for transferring from a special student to a regular one.


※1 Almost all classes provided in the doctoral program of our graduate school are also conducted in Japanese; however, some classes may be conducted in English after mutual consultation. Meanwhile, English language skills are required at applying to take the entrance examination, so that an applicant has to submit the scoresheet of TOEIC® Listening & Reading Test or The TOEFL® Test.


※2 If the applicant has passed either EJU Japanese or JLPT N1, he/she may be able to read a formal document published by our university.