MEXT Undergraduate Scholarship from India: Eligibility After 12th, Dates and Benefits

Dr. Jayanthy Ramakrishnan

06/11/2026

9 min read

The MEXT Undergraduate Students scholarship is the Japanese government’s fully funded route to a bachelor’s degree in Japan for students who have finished, or are finishing, Class 12. From India you apply through the Embassy of Japan in New Delhi or one of the Japanese consulates, and most grantees spend their first year in Japan on an intensive Japanese preparatory course.

This guide covers who can apply from India, the marks and age rules, the embassy’s stages and dates, what the scholarship pays, the preparatory year, and how this route differs from the Research Students scholarship for a Master’s or PhD. Every rule comes from the Embassy of Japan in India’s Undergraduate Students 2027 page (updated 13 July 2026) and MEXT’s 2027 application guidelines for undergraduate students, both read on 5 November 2026.

What is the MEXT undergraduate scholarship?

It is a scholarship from Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) for international students who want to study for a bachelor’s degree at a Japanese national university. Under embassy recommendation, the embassy or consulate in your country runs the first screening, and MEXT makes the final selection in Japan.

For the 2027 intake the Embassy of Japan in India offers up to 12 scholarships. About 12 applicants who pass the first screening go forward to MEXT’s worldwide final screening.

Who can apply from India after Class 12?

The guidelines also exclude people who are military personnel when they arrive in Japan, people already enrolled at a Japanese university as a privately financed student, and people applying to another MEXT programme at the same time. Age exceptions are allowed only for circumstances in the applicant’s country such as military service, not for personal reasons.

Which subjects can you study?

You choose a course and up to three majors within it:

• Social Sciences and Humanities A: law, politics, pedagogy, sociology, literature, history, Japanese language and others.
• Social Sciences and Humanities B: economics, business administration and related fields such as accounting.
• Natural Sciences A: mathematics, physics, chemistry, electrical, electronic and information engineering, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, architecture, chemical engineering, biotechnology and related fields.
• Natural Sciences B: agriculture, veterinary medicine, food science, pharmacy, nursing, biology and related fields.

Natural Sciences C (medicine and dentistry) is not offered in India. Art and music majors are not eligible.

How does the embassy route work, step by step?

For students in Delhi and the states not covered by a consulate, the embassy in New Delhi ran the 2027 first screening on this timetable:

The 2027 application window has closed. As of 5 November 2026 the embassy’s undergraduate page still shows the 2027 cycle, and the 2028 announcement is not yet out. If the next cycle follows the same pattern, applications would close in late May 2027 with the written test in June 2027, but treat that as a guide until the embassy publishes the dates.

Where you apply depends on your state. The consulates in Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai and Bengaluru handle their own regions on their own schedules, so check their pages:

• Kolkata: West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha.
• Chennai: Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
• Mumbai: Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
• Bengaluru: Karnataka.
• Embassy, New Delhi: all other states and union territories.

Applications go by post, courier or in person to the right office. The embassy does not accept applications by email.

What is in the written test?

Every applicant who is shortlisted sits the written test. Calculators are not allowed.

MEXT publishes past papers through Study in Japan, and the embassy links to them from its page. This test is the embassy’s own; it is not the EJU. For the EJU, which most universities use for privately financed applicants, see our EJU exam guide for Indian students.

What does the MEXT undergraduate scholarship pay?

• Monthly allowance: ¥117,000 a month. Grantees in specially designated regions get an extra ¥2,000 or ¥3,000 a month. MEXT notes that the amount can change each fiscal year with the government budget.
• Education fees: entrance examination, matriculation and tuition fees are waived.
• Travel: an economy-class ticket to Japan from the international airport nearest your home, and a return ticket after you graduate. Domestic travel to the airport, airport taxes, travel insurance and baggage costs are your own.

The allowance stops for long absences, and MEXT can cancel the scholarship or ask for repayment for reasons such as false statements, poor grades or taking another scholarship that was not approved. Our guide to what the MEXT scholarship covers goes through the benefits in more detail.

What is the one-year Japanese preparatory course?

Most grantees do not start their degree straight away. They spend the first year at a preparatory institution chosen by MEXT: ABK College for Social Sciences and Humanities students, and Osaka University for Natural Sciences students. The course is mostly intensive Japanese, plus subjects such as maths, English and social studies for humanities students, or physics, chemistry and biology for science students.

After the year, you go on to a university decided by MEXT, after passing that university’s own entrance exam. The choice takes into account your first-screening results, your preparatory-year grades, your major and the university’s capacity, and you cannot object to it. Classes at university are in Japanese.

Three rules make the preparatory year matter:

• If you are judged unable to complete the course, the scholarship is cancelled and you return home.
• If you complete it but cannot enter a university, the scholarship is also cancelled.
• You cannot change your course (for example from Natural Sciences A to B) or transfer to another university.

With the preparatory year, the scholarship runs five years, from April 2027 to March 2032. It runs seven years for veterinary medicine or a six-year pharmacy course.

Direct placement skips the preparatory year. It is open to applicants with enough Japanese, or to applicants accepted onto an undergraduate course that does not require Japanese. Those grantees start in April, September or October 2027, depending on the university, and the scholarship covers four years. If you already study Japanese, see our JLPT exam guide for India.

How is it different from the MEXT research student scholarship?

The Research Students scholarship is for graduates going on to a Master’s or PhD. The embassy’s Research Students 2027 page (updated 6 August 2026) sets different rules:

You cannot apply to two MEXT programmes in the same cycle, so pick the one that matches your qualifications. For the research route and the documents for both, see our MEXT scholarship application guide and the MEXT scholarship application pack.

What documents do you need?

The 2027 guidelines ask every applicant for an original set and a copy set of:

• the FY2027 application form, with a recent 4.5 x 3.5 cm photo;
• academic transcripts for all school years, and university transcripts if you have studied at one;
• a certificate of graduation, or of expected graduation if you are still in Class 12;
• a recommendation letter from your class teacher or principal;
• the FY2027 medical certificate, signed by a physician.

Language certificates (Japanese or English) are optional, issued within the last two years. The direct placement preference form is given only to applicants who pass the first screening and ask for it. Use the current year’s forms; the embassy says not to use previous years’.

How should you prepare from India?

• Check your marks against the 80% rule early. If your Class 12 result is not out, your Class 10 marks and a school letter carry the application.
• Find your office. Your state decides whether you apply to the embassy or a consulate, and the dates differ.
• Practise the written test. Use MEXT’s past papers in English and maths, and in physics, chemistry or biology for science courses.
• Start Japanese now. The embassy gives preference to applicants with Japanese, and your degree will usually be taught in it.
• Watch for the 2028 announcement. Check the embassy and consulate pages from early 2027; the 2027 deadline was 25 May 2026.

If you are weighing the MEXT route against applying to Japanese universities directly, talk to our Japan admissions team about universities, scholarships and applications.