Travel Allowance under MEXT

[purat]

Hey everyone,

I have a question, and hopefully someone has first-hand experience with that. I am currently a MEXT student (university recommendation) and wanted to know whether we can get some additional money for travelling to conferences. I was looking through the net finding some old thread about that. It was written there that MEXT would pay for conferences and so on. Thus, I asked at my grad school, but the information I got from there.... rather confusing. They said if I go to a conference, either my professor should pay from his funds, or maybe the conference or... uuuuh.... that did not help.
We also got some piece of paper about travel allowances stating some things like we are not allowed to receive additional scholarships. Which sounded as if MEXT would give money, but you are not allowed to spend it for other stuff. My "investigation" skills found also a special research fund from MEXT one can apply for. Thus, if you have any information regarding this issue, please share them. I am sorry for this, but unfortunately, the people in my grad school just said "Don't worry". :?

 

[thepie]

Oh speaking of the ol' time, MEXT even paid for your medical expenses.

Back to your questions, the answer is no, MEXT won't pay for your travel/conference expenses. When you go to a conference, your lab would pay for it - but it's not like you can go to whatever you want. The school also has funding for that, and typically the lab secretary would take care of the paperwork. But everything has to go through your professor, so ask him directly.