After the interview, it might take a month-long waiting time
before the embassy notifies you that you qualify for the next stage. If the
panel interview is the scary part of the process, the next stage is the tedious
part.
You have to pick up a set of your applications documents in
the embassy which they marked with their seal together with a letter endorsing
you as a possible candidate for the Japanese Government Scholarship. Take note
that everything from this point on is tentative. Even if you keep on
progressing to the next stage, if the embassy has not informed you of the final
results, it means it is NOT GUARANTEED. Again, there are a lot of surprises so
you’ll never know what you’ll get next – some universities might not accept,
you might be placed in another university, additional documents might be
requests, and so on.
After you get the copies of your documents, you have to
reproduce them and send them to your desired universities in Japan. You are
allowed to submit to the embassy a list of three universities according to your
preference. You also need to note the name of the professor you are targeting
and the department where he belongs to. Also understand that the certificate of
admission that you are requesting from the universities only offers tentative
admission. MEXT will decide in which university you will be placed, although I
have to say that MEXT is quite generous and they will really try to place you
in the university which you indicated as your first choice. I was placed in
Waseda University, my first choice.
Each university has a strict rule when it comes to MEXT
applicants so you should directly get in touch with the university and check
their requirements. This process takes a long time so I advice you that you
send your documents to the universities as early as you can to give them ample
time to process your papers. Remember that Japan is such a bureaucratic country
so expect your papers to pass several levels of screening and approval.
If a university accepts you, they will send you in hard copy
the actual certificate of admission, which you will have to submit to your
local Japanese embassy. At this stage, your role in the application process
officially ends. After submitting the three copies of the certificate of
admission, the rest is up to MEXT and your local Japanese embassy to arrange. All
your application documents, including the certificates of admission will be
sent to Japan for further screening by MEXT. This is why, there is still no
guarantee of receiving the scholarship at this point.
Tentative results will come out around late December or early
January. Receiving the good news is a great Christmas gift or a New Year’s
present. Final results will likely come out sometime around February (or maybe
early March if it gets a little delayed). For this fifth and sixth stage, you can do
nothing else but to sit back, relax and wait, wait, wait. At this point,
indeed, patience is a helpful virtue.
Now that you’re done reading about all the stages of the
application process, maybe, it’s about time to start preparing your own
application packet. This journey to Japan will not be an easy one, but I can
say that it will be a worthwhile one. Don’t be afraid to try and fail, fail and
try again. If you believe in your heart that you will fulfill your dream to go
to Japan, then make the first step and prepare your documents. May God bless
your application and I hope to see you in Japan sometime soon!
がんばってください！
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