2025 Japanese Language Program for Specialists in Cultural and Academic Field

Application Closed for 2025

With the aim of supporting specialists who require Japanese-language proficiency in order to smoothly perform their specialized work and research activities (such as researchers, graduate students, librarians, museum and art museum curators), this program provides training to improve their Japanese- language ability by learning practical Japanese and actually using it in their research and specialized work-related activities, conducted at the Japanese-Language Institute, Kansai.

• Program Outline (PDF:80.6KB)

GRANT COVERAGE

There are no tuition fees. Participants will reside at the Japanese-Language Institute, Kansai (single rooms) and we will cover weekday meals, and national health insurance and overseas travel insurance (with upper limit on coverage) airfare will NOT be covered for US applicants.

Program Venue

The program is held at the Japan Foundation - Japanese Language Institute, Kansai in Japan.

Duration

From early-October 2025 to late-March 2026.

During the training course, participants will independently conduct interviews with specialists in their field as well as plan their own trips to visit related facilities and, as they gather and understand research materials, they will be able to acquire the skills needed to exchange, collect, and report information in Japanese. The participants will need to independently plan their activities with an explicit theme. Participants are required to make a presentation about their research themes as their accomplishments of the course and specialized activities conducted during their stay in Japan at the end of the course.

Past Participant Comments

Michael VanHartingsveldt (University of Kansas) [2022-2023]

Elizabeth McDonald (University of California, Riverside) [2016-2017]

Application Materials

• Application Deadline: Apply through Online Application Portal by 1 p.m., December 3rd, 2024 (Japan Standard Time) [8PM, December 2nd, 2024 Pacific Time]

• Upload your application documents to the Online Application Portal. Online Application Portal: https://www.apply.jpf.go.jp * Visit the website to view the manual for this procedure.

• Contact

  Click here and use the form to contact us with any questions or to inform us of your intention to apply to one of these programs (Select Anything Related to Japanese Language Education).

• Notification of Results: Late April, 2025

• Application Instructions / Application Form:

• Applications for this program is now closed!