Route
The seven checks before departure
Do not start with a single exam. First connect route, costs, school requirements, application windows, admission procedures, and travel procedures.
- 1 Route choice
Confirm whether the main route is language school, direct admission, graduate application, or work.
As early as possible
- 2 Exams
Map JLPT, EJU, English tests, and school exams to each target school.
Before applications open
- 3 Documents
Prepare certificates, translations, recommendation materials, and proof of funds.
6-3 months before
- 4 Travel procedures
Handle admission permission, COE, visa, flight, housing, and arrival paperwork in order.
After admission
Use this as a planning frame; final requirements must come from the target school, immigration office, and consulate.
Budget
Split the first year into three ledgers, not one-month-times-twelve
The biggest budgeting mistake is not miscounting tuition, but treating the first year as one month of living costs times twelve, which drops the entire one-time arrival ledger. Split the first year into three separate ledgers: before-arrival, first-month one-time, and the stable monthly run-rate.
| Ledger | What it usually contains | Why it is separate [要確認] |
|---|
| 1 Before-arrival | Flight, visa/COE handling, the first tuition and exam fees, medical check, mailing, passport, and a landing reserve. | The application process itself keeps costing money; this ledger must be funded before you board. |
| 2 First-month one-time | Housing setup (deposit/key money/agency fee/guarantor/fire insurance/advance rent — MLIT guideline is roughly 4-7 months of rent in total), furniture and appliances, first daily goods, SIM, and a commuter pass. | This is the most-often-dropped ledger and can rival half a year of living costs; the deposit is not fully refundable (restoration costs are deducted). Dorms and UR housing have far lower setup costs, but treat those as a lower-bound branch, not the default. |
| 3 Stable monthly | Rent plus non-rent (food, utilities, commuting, insurance/medical, materials, daily life). JASSO survey: national housing about 41,000 yen/month, Tokyo about 57,000; national living costs (excluding study/research) about 105,000 yen/month. | The JASSO average reflects students already in Japan; it is a good anchor but underestimates first-month cash flow. City gaps open up through rent first, and Tokyo/Kanto run clearly above the national figure; cold regions add winter heating. |
[目安] Do not let well-known Tokyo numbers hide city gaps: Osaka, Kyoto, and Nagoya are not cheap — pick the city and tier first, then read the band. Part-time work is a supplement, not a tuition plan (immigration: in principle up to 28 hours per week; actual part-time earnings average about 81,000 yen/month and cannot cover all tuition and living costs). Do not squeeze the first-month budget to 'just enough' or count part-time income early. All amounts are reference snapshots that move with inflation, exchange rates, city, and property each year — estimate with /tools/budget and confirm against the latest official figures. Source: JASSO living-cost survey, Study in Japan tuition/living/housing pages, MLIT housing guide.
Entry procedures
COE → visa → entry → residence registration is a relay chain, not one paper swapped for another
A first long-term arrival on a Student status runs a relay chain across agencies, regions, and in-person counters: admission permission → COE → visa → landing inspection → residence card / registration. The usual failures are not 'it could not be processed' but treating four things with different agencies, timings, and legal functions as one, or reusing old paper-era habits.
| Step | Key fact | Most common trap [要確認] |
|---|
| Certificate of Eligibility (COE) | A pre-entry eligibility pre-screen, usually filed by the receiving school as proxy; email delivery has been allowed since 2023-03-17. | Holding a COE is not the same as being able to enter; the COE is valid for only 3 months and lapses if you do not land within 3 months of issue, and COE validity is not visa validity — delays in the visa or ticketing can let the COE lapse on its own. |
| Proof of funds (経費支弁) | Not a standalone gate but a set of proofs embedded in the COE/visa materials (balance + income + how the funds formed + relationship chain). | The school often asks for it when collecting COE materials; a sudden large transfer is the hardest to explain, so fund early instead of 'drawing the picture' just before submission. |
| Visa (査証) | After the COE is issued, the visa is granted by the Japanese embassy/consulate for your home or residence area. | A visa cannot be obtained inside Japan; in mainland China it is in principle handled through the consulate's designated agency, not a walk-in window; determine your consular district (in principle by where you actually live, not only your hukou) before checking the agency and the current forms. |
| Landing inspection | Carry passport + visa + COE on entry (the admission letter is sometimes requested too); you may pre-enter clearance info in Visit Japan Web. | Visit Japan Web is an online convenience service for immigration/customs, not an electronic visa; pre-entering helps but is not required to enter. The unaccompanied-baggage declaration cannot be redone after entry. |
| Residence card issuance | Those staying over 3 months receive a residence card; designated ports such as Narita, Haneda, Kansai, and Fukuoka issue it on the spot at landing. | Non-designated ports do not issue it on the day (the passport is stamped 'to be issued later' and the card is mailed after registration), which affects whether you can use it in the first few days; the designated-port list follows the current immigration Q&A, not old versions. Check the name spelling and that the status reads 'Student' the moment you receive the card. |
| Residence registration | After fixing your actual address, take the residence card to the city office to register, which also triggers My Number and National Health Insurance. | The 14 days count not from your flight landing but from the day you fix and actually start living at the address; while in a hotel or short stay the clock has not started, but do not register a friend's address first (officials require your true address, and an error cascades into address changes, mail, and school-record mismatches). |
[目安] A 2026 variable for Chinese nationals: pre-entry tuberculosis screening for long-term arrivals is in the official long-stay visa framework, but the MHLW JPETS page still marks China as 'under coordination / start date undecided' — if your window is formally included, a TB certificate may be added at the COE/visa material stage, so keep watching. Exact document counts, processing times, district forms, and on-the-spot issuance ports change by year and consulate; please confirm against the official sources. Official entry points: Immigration COE / 'Student' status pages and Q&A, MOFA VISA top page and your consular district's 'apply for a visa with a COE' page, the Visit Japan Web official page, your city's 'moving in from abroad' page, and the JPETS pre-entry TB screening page. Reference: Study in Japan 'Immigration procedures / residence status' https://www.studyinjapan.go.jp/ja/planning/immigration-procedures/
Documents
Lock down the documents that are painful to re-issue after leaving China
A packing list is not just clothes and adapters. Notarization, authentication, translation, and proof of funds are four independent lines that do not automatically replace each other — and many of these documents can only be issued by the original authority back home, where the cost to re-issue rises sharply once you have left.
| Item | Suggested preparation | Why it matters |
|---|
| Academic and grade proof | Graduation/pre-graduation proof, transcripts, language scores, translations; plus CHSI online verification reports or notarized copies if the target school requires them. | Notarization, authentication, and translation are separate lines (see the footnote); these can only be issued by the original authority in China, and re-issuing after departure is far more costly. |
| Proof of funds (経費支弁) | Bank balance certificate plus income/employment proof, a record of how the funds formed, and relationship proof for the sponsor. | Funds review checks coverage + continuity + explainability, not a single number; a sudden large transfer is hardest to explain, so have it in place early. |
| Identity and entry materials | Passport, visa, COE, admission letter, school contacts, housing address, Visit Japan Web info. | Used for entry, school registration, residence registration, and emergencies; keep one paper and one digital backup. |
| Seal, photos, payment, medication | A simple personal seal if needed, ID photos, a bank card usable in Japan with some cash, and prescription documentation for medication. | Some procedures still use a seal; the first month is busy, so prepare ID photos in advance; medication rules and names differ in Japan. |
Notarization / authentication / translation / proof of funds are four independent lines, and 'notarize everything first' is not a safe strategy: (1) notarization (a Chinese notary office) proves the document is genuine and lawful, but it is not the education authority verifying your degree; (2) a Hague apostille / アポスティーユ or consular authentication only certifies the last seal/signature, not the content, and does not replace CHSI online verification or the school's designated translation — after China joined the Hague Convention on 2023-11-07, 'going to Japan = double authentication by default' is outdated, but whether this step is needed is still decided by the school or immigration, and many schools do not require it; (3) translation has no national certificate — what matters is the receiver's required language and translator (some schools forbid self-translation or machine translation and name a public body or translation company), while immigration's baseline is a Japanese translation attached to foreign-language documents; (4) proof of funds is not a single number but coverage + continuity + explainability — balance certificate + income/employment proof + how the funds formed + relationship proof read together, and when a non-parent is the sponsor, lock down the relationship chain first. Confirm exact document counts, whether authentication is needed, and translation format against the target school's latest admission guide, the immigration 'Student' status page, China's MOFA consular service site / local foreign affairs offices, and CHSI / CSCSE.
