Japan Mobility I: The Request

This year I have successfully obtained a vacancy in a mobility program offered by my University for making my end of master thesis. I have suffered a lot of uncertainty due to I was not asking to a standard mobility program as may be Erasmus. My University was managing the mobility process as a two-side agreement, something similar to the status of exchange student.

Why this?

After dealing with so many procedures, which I had never seen before, I though to write some posts to ease the life of someone that maybe in the future will face this challenge. Take into account that I am writing this post from a Spanish point of view. If you are from other country, non-European Union country, the process may change a little bit.

The mobility request

February-March, 2017. I asked a mobility to a Japanese University in my home University. They suggested me to go to the Nagaoka University of Technology - an University they had an agreement with. After checking the University activities, facilities, telling my research interest and checking that was no problem by their side, I accepted the University suggestion.

After the acceptance I started the bureaucracy adventure. Seems like japanese people love to fill forms, due to is the thing that I have to do most. The first bunch of documents that I have to fill include:

• Academic Record: bachelor and first year of master records. This documents are provided by your home University.
• Certificate of Health: has to be filled and signed by your doctor.
• English Certificate: a C1 level certificate is required for being elected.
• Payslip: a document that proves you - and/or your parents - have a permanent job.
• Certificate of Enrollment: this document proves that you are studying what you say you are studying. It has to be signed by your mobility coordinator.
• Application Form: consists of a form asking for personal data, academic record, work experience...
• 20 Questions Form: some general questions about you (personal data, financial support, if you have family or friends living in Japan, your criminal record), your current living address and University information.
• A picture of you.
• Passport: check that does not expire during your staying in Japan.
• Your CV: use Europass format.

Some of the documents have to be signed by your mobility coordinator, so make sure to fill all forms as soon as possible for avoiding to exceed the due date. Send the documents some days earlier than the final date, just in case any problem arise - I had to check again a document.

The response

April, 2017. After the due date you will have to wait 2-3 weeks until the destination University tells you wether you are accepted or not. If there are enough vacancies and you have a good academic record, you may have no problem at all.

If you are accepted they will send you a digital copy of acceptance letter. This letter just says to your University's coordinator that you have been accepted in a degree during a specific period.

Then you will start to communicate with the remote University's international coordinator. They will introduce you to your sensei and they may offer to enroll subjects in their University. In my case, I had already studied most of the subjects they were offering in English. So I just signed on a basic Japanese course they were offering. You will notice later that you will not have enough time to study several subjects.

Hell on your Earth

April, 2017. Did you think you finished filling papers? Naive. Soon your home University will start to send you more forms. At least, they may ask you less forms than the remote University:

• Mobility program request: you have to fill your current academic information (what are you studying), who is your coordinator and the staying period (6 months to 1 year).
• Learning Agreement: this document contains who is the student, you home University coordinator and destination University coordinator and teacher - it have to be signed by the three persons, so you have to take it to Japan and retrieve it once you finished the staying. In addition includes the equivalence between the subject/credits in your home University and your destination University. The credits in Japanese Universities are different from the European Universities.

Well, is has not been so hard... if you know how you have to fill the forms. Beware of the due date - although the deadlines in your home University tend to be more relaxed. After submitting the forms, you will have to wait 1-2 weeks until you start receiving documents of proving that you have been accepted in the mobility program. Then your International Mobility Office will send instructions about what you have to prepare before going to Japan, what you have to do during your staying and what you have to do after the mobility.

What's next?

In this post I have covered all the request process of the destination and origin University. In the future I will write how to prepare your VISA and which service have to be hired for the staying in your home country.