I am a half-Japanese person who's lived all their life in Australia. Am I able to study in a university at Tokyo, or in Japan in general?

Question

I've already asked this question before, but I didn't really get any response, thus I've reposted haha.

I am currently a high school student studying in Australia. I have no idea what I 'd like to specifically do in the future, but I definitely want to study and live in Tokyo, if not, at least in a populated area in Japan for university. My parents are willing to pay for my fees, and I will take up a part-time job in Japan if I have to (most likely will).

I am half Japanese with a Japanese and Australian passport. I've studied and lived all my life in Australia. However, I can read Japanese (Hiragana, Katakana, most of general/common Kanji used), but my writing is terrible. I'm willing to study and am now. My speaking is fluent and I'm able to smoothly understand what I hear in Japanese, but I know less words and their specific definition.

I am completely lost on how to tackle this problem on enrolling. I have no idea whether I'm even able to, and if I was, which course I'm able to take. Do I take my course in Japanese or English? Do I enroll as an Australian student? Some people have told me that I can't do that because I'm half Japanese. However, I can't enroll as a Japanese person because my base knowledge in Japanese is no where near as high as a Japanese person. I've heard of repatriate children and some have called me so, but I'm not at all sure.

Please enlighten me with some information if you have it. Thank you.

Answer 1

Yes, you can do this.



Either you can study in a program taught in Japanese (probably you need to take the kikokushijyo exam), although you may wish to attend a language school for 6 months or a year first, or you could try for a program taught in English. Nowadays, an increasing number of programs are taught in English, and more universities could accept you. This is a good place to start - http://www.uni.international.mext.go.jp/

Not all universities can accept Japanese (or half-Japanese), but some can.

Answer 2

I think your best bet is to get into a good university in Australia with a year-long exchange program in Japan. (A good program.) You'll have an advantage over the other people studying Japanese, and that will boost your grade point average. You'll have a degree that you can use in Australia, and it will also let you get a job in Japan teaching English as an assistant, if you want. And you'll be able to keep up with your other coursework.



If you really want to go to school in Japan, I'd say learn your Japanese during college, then go do graduate work in Japan. You'll have the language to do the coursework, and it'll be more educational. I haven't heard a lot of outstanding praise for the Japanese four-year college system. The best I've heard is "adequate." The most common phrase I've heard is "second-rate knock-off of Western education."

Answer 3

You need to tell us if you have Japanese citizenship first. If you have, you don't need a visa to go to an university in Japan. Otherwise, you need a visa.



Addition:

Oh, sorry. I didn't notice that part. If you have Japanese citizenship, you can apply for a Japanese university as Japanese. And you don't need a visa.



We have a term "returnee" 帰国子女 in Japan which means Japanese kids who used to live in other countries. You can apply for an university as such.



Basically, all Japanese colleges require you to taken an entrance exam. But some of them have an exam for returnee which does not require as much Japanese skill as on Japanese kids.



This page has information on exams for returnees.

http://www.gakkou.net/daigaku/src/?srcmode=ntk&ntk=6

Answer 4

You could be a student in a school like Temple U in Tokyo.