From Thailand
17.7% of students from Thailand in Japan are at a language school
3,538 people from Thailand were studying in Japan as of May 2025, down 1.4% in a year. 17.7% are at a Japanese language school rather than a university — and that split decides the money, the working week and the odds of a scholarship.
As of 1 May 2025 there were 3,538 students from Thailand in Japan — rank 12 of the countries JASSO lists, and 0.9% of all 408,069 international students in the country.
The number from Thailand barely moved in the year to May 2025 — −1.4% — while the international student population as a whole grew 21.2%. In relative terms, Thailand's share of students in Japan is shrinking.
The two routes, and which one Thailand takes
Every international student in Japan is on one of two paths: a Japanese language school, or a higher education institution — university, graduate school, vocational school or junior college. Nationally the split is 34.4% language school. From Thailand it is 17.7%.
2,911 and 627 students respectively. The language school figure is our subtraction — total minus higher education — not a published number. Nationally the language school share is 34.4%.
That is 16.6 points below the national average.
Most students from Thailand go straight into higher education, and the language school route is rarer here than in most countries.
The distinction matters because of scholarships. Among higher education students, 44.0% receive one, averaging ¥70,000 a month. Among language school students it is 13.2% at ¥35,000. Spread across everyone that is ¥31,000 a month against ¥5,000 — a six-fold gap, and it has to be made up somewhere. It is made up by working.
So the 17.7% figure above is not a statistic about paperwork. It is the share of students from Thailand for whom the funding picture is the harder one.
What that means in a month, for a typical student on Thailand's route mix
This is our calculation, not a measurement. JASSO does not publish income by country. We have taken the published monthly figures for language school students and for higher education students and weighted them by Thailand's 17.7 / 82.3 route split. It assumes students from Thailand are otherwise average, which is an assumption and not a finding.
Against a total of roughly ¥170,646 a month. The scholarship line is the one to look at hardest: at ¥26,392 it is material, but it is not money you have until you have it.
What this page cannot tell you
JASSO does not break living costs, working hours or scholarships down by country. Only the student counts and the route split are published per country. Everything else on this page is the national figure for each route, weighted by Thailand's route mix.
So this page cannot tell you what students from Thailand specifically spend, or whether they work more than average, or whether they cluster in particular cities. If a site tells you those things with a number attached, ask which table it came from.
What does vary enormously and is measured: the city you choose, which moves monthly costs by up to ¥66,000 — about twice what the choice of institution does.
The things that will actually decide your year
- Which city. Tokyo runs ¥199,000 a month against ¥133,000 in Tohoku. This is the largest single number you control. The regional breakdown.
- Whether you go through a language school. Most people from Thailand do not, but it is a choice, and it depends on what you are applying to — 41.5% of undergraduates came that way, 14.3% of doctoral students.
- How many hours you work. The legal ceiling is 28 a week. 72.1% of working language school students are at 20 or more.
- Whether anyone will guarantee your rent. 48.7% of students were asked for a guarantor, and only 19.3% of those could use a guarantee company.
Can you afford it? — put in what your family can send and how many hours you could work, and it shows the gap against what students in that region actually spend.
Thailand against the other 29 countries — the same figures, side by side.
Sources. Student counts, the one-year change and the route split: Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO), Survey of International Students in Japan, as of 1 May 2025 — result page, full data (PDF, Japanese). Totals: 408,069 students, 267,895 in higher education, 140,174 at Japanese language schools. Monthly income by route, scholarship rates and working hours: JASSO, FY2023 Survey on Living Conditions of Privately Financed International Students, Tables 5-5, 6-2, 8-5, 8-10 — PDF (Japanese). What is ours. The language school share is a subtraction (total minus higher education); the two published totals sum to exactly 408,069, which is what makes it safe. The monthly income figures on this page are the national per-route figures weighted by Thailand's route split — our arithmetic, not a published country figure. JASSO does not publish income, costs or working hours by country. Note the two dates. The counts are May 2025. The money is from the FY2023 living-conditions survey, the most recent published. Where the two are combined, they are two years apart.
This page describes Thailand on average. You are not an average.
It cannot tell you whether your plan works — your school, your family's budget, the year you are going, the city. If that is the part you are stuck on, ask us one question and we will answer it from the statistics and the rules.
Ask one question →Free, once. No sales call afterwards — we take no commission from any school, so there is nothing for us to sell you.