Japanese Government (MEXT) Postgraduate Scholarships

MEXT Alumni Personal Experiences

Costas Kakouratos, MSc Civil Engineering
Japanese Government (MEXT) Postgraduate Scholarship
Yokohama National University from April 2014 – April 2016

Upon finding out about the MEXT scholarship (the teacher at my extra-curricular language school happened to be handing out leaflets), my first instinct was how utterly perfect it seemed. I simply had to apply; the opportunity to study for my masters on a scholarship in Japan – a country I had visited numerous times and on each occasion dreaded the flight home – was too good to pass up. At the time I was working a good job in central London in the field of my interest (Civil Engineering), and so giving that up as well as saying goodbye to my friends and family wasn’t easy. That being said, it wasn’t a tough decision: My love of Japan was unequivocal. I knew I wanted to pursue my master’s and I knew that at 25 years of age the timing was perfect. The stars had aligned.

During the application process I’d been in contact with numerous universities across Japan. My preference was for a big city given my field of interest is Civil Engineering with a specific focus on transportation. Ultimately I ended up at Yokohama National University, which suited me splendidly. Japanese transportation is a marvel and I was truly fortunate to be studying under one of its leading academic minds. The course, like many master’s programmes in Japan, was structured over two years as opposed to the one year structure most common in the UK, which allowed for me to accrue a wealth of knowledge. As well as my basis in transportation I was able to take classes on disaster management, computer programming, structural engineering and even do a short internship at a Japanese firm in Tokyo. This was also supplemented by many lab trips my professors would organise across Japan. The balance of one year of classes followed by one year of concentrating fully on my master’s thesis suited me perfectly.

Touching down in Japan after a 12 hour flight and being thrust into a new life is disorientating and stressful. Registering at the ward office, signing up for classes, and coming to grips with daily life isn’t easy. Thankfully my university was very helpful. They set up a buddy system that pairs each MEXT arrival with a Japanese student. On the first day, my buddy met me at the airport and helped me lug my cases home and fill out some necessary forms at my new accommodation. The next morning he waited for me in the dormitory lobby and together we attended the opening ceremony for the new school year together. After this we spent the next few days at various offices registering for an exhaustive list of different things like bank accounts, health insurance and mobile phone contracts. It was all very overwhelming. But then as suddenly as they began, those whirlwind days were over. Classes started and new friendships were made. My life in Japan had begun, and the following two years passed by before I knew it.

I must stress that whilst my Japanese was by no means fluent – in fact it was pretty terrible upon reflection – I was prior to leaving for Japan taking once a week classes in Japanese after work. This, in addition to helping me settle initially, opened a great many doors for me in terms of being able to engage with native students as well as people in day-to-day life. Even if it isn’t critical to your pursuit of study (it wasn’t to mine), I strongly recommend forming a basic understanding of the language. Of course, once you arrive the opportunities to build on this are literally endless.

As you can probably tell, my two years studying in Japan under the MEXT scholarship programme have been completely amazing and I feel compelled to urge anyone with even the slightest inkling to undertake the same experience to seize the opportunity with both hands. I completed my master’s course in the Graduate School of Urban Innovation laboratory at Yokohama National University in April 2016 and decided to stay and work in Japan. I have the MEXT programme to thank for making this all possible.