Actually Japan
Studying in Japan, without the brochure.
Everything here comes from what the Japanese government actually publishes — enrolment statistics, the living-conditions survey of 7,867 international students, immigration rules as they stand today.
No school pays to appear here. We are not an agency and we do not take a commission on where you go.
What it's actually like
Your Japanese friends will come from your part-time job, not your university. Half the people here worried about the wrong thing before arriving. Ten findings, each one checked against the survey it came from.
→ 2Where you are from changes everything
55.0% of students from Myanmar start at a language school. From South Korea it is 7.4%. That one difference decides your first year, your visa route and what it costs. Twenty-one countries, each with its own numbers.
→ 3Can you afford it
Put in what your family can send and how many hours you could work. We show you the gap, using what students here actually spend and actually earn — plus the odds on a scholarship, and where people from your country really go.
→Already read enough and still stuck on your own situation? Ask us one question — free, once, answered from the statistics and the rules. No sales call afterwards.
Start from your country
China 131,097 · Nepal 100,239 · Vietnam 43,366 · Myanmar 29,413 · Sri Lanka 17,626 · South Korea 14,612 · Bangladesh 11,392 · Taiwan 7,989 · Indonesia 7,032 · United States 4,579 · Mongolia 3,994 · Thailand 3,538 · Malaysia 2,599 · Uzbekistan 2,519 · Philippines 2,492 · France 2,378 · India 2,095 · Pakistan 1,976 · Russia 1,404 · Germany 1,215 · United Kingdom 1,007
Ten findings · Calculators · By country · Every number, with its source · Where the photographs came from · 中文：日本大学要考哪个试 · Ask one question · What we do with your address
Sources: JASSO's enrolment survey (408,069 international students as of May 2025) and its FY2023 survey of privately financed international students (7,867 responses; 7,599 on income and spending). Immigration rules from the Immigration Services Agency.
Every figure on this site links back to the document it came from. Where something is uncertain, we say so rather than rounding it into a claim.