Mext and phd

Hi everyone.

I have few questions regarding mext scholarship. So i' m going to graduate soon and get master's degree in marine biology and ecology. I have searched for universities in Japan and found few that match my study area. So i read in mext guidebook that you can enter only as research student and then apply to courses like regular phd student. They didn't wrote about any examination (except for english test and interview of course). But i found out on pages of Tokyo university of marine science and technology that you need to pass oral examination and exam depended upon the different major. I am a bit confused: do i have to pass exam that mext is conducting and then the exam that tokyo university is conducting or i just have to pass mext exam?

so to summary: which exams i have to pass to enter as regular phd student?

it is so confusing and japanese embassy does not give any detailed information.

thank you very much for your help

You need to prepare a research proposal, write a test and appear in an interview to first earn the scholarship nomination (it is just nomination not a confirmation) at your local Japanese embassy.

You need to get a tentative acceptance by at least one professor at a Japanese university in the form of a "Letter of Acceptance", in a particular format (provided to you by your local Japanese embassy once more).

You need to give this Letter to your local Japanese embassy so they can get a confirmation from MEXT in Japan that you will be joining that univ and that particular prof as a research student, a noteworthy point here is that they can put you in some other univ. Then you go to Japan and learn Japanese for like six months and side by side prepare for entrance test to the "actual Phd program". Till this time you will be just a research student who wont get any type of degree or certificate...

Once and if you get admission as a regular Phd student, you will need to "extend" your scholarship which means another test and interview with MEXT and a letter of recommendation by your prof. Here there is a HUGE Risk.... as unlike masters, it happens quite often that you may have every other thing leaving the scholarship... you may try to get another scholarship there are quite a few of them, or if you are lucky your prof may support you out of his research fund, though it is unlikely... as one reason MEXT scholarship candidates preferred over others by Japanese profs is due to the fact that they dont require funding for tution etc...

So you then work on your Phd... it takes usually 3 years + 6-10 months of research student period...

Not to mention you need to start 1 year ahead for getting the scholarship in the first place...

Thank you Ajay, you cleared a lot for me. I started preparing for mext already. Do you now do research students can listen to lectures or it's just working in lab with professor?

tnx

I am not the best person to answer this, I think menuri or orangeclockwork may answer it better. But AFAIK, it all depends upon your understanding with your prof., He may allow you to audit some courses (I doubt that they can count for any degree later on.). You may be working in a Lab, or may be completely focusing on your entrance exam and Japanese class. Totally depends on your professor and your university.

Thank you for answering my questions . I think i get it now