your roadmap
The whole journey from Nepal to Japan, end to end — including the stage most students discover too late, which is the one that happens before you apply anywhere.
Nine stages. Two of them run on someone else's timetable — your school files the COE, and the immigration agency takes as long as it takes — which is why the runway matters more here than the effort.
Move the money into place
Not a paperwork step — a family one. The funds you will have to prove must sit in an account with a documented origin, and building that record takes months. This is the single largest cause of refusals, and it is the stage students skip.
MEXT, if you are a candidate
Embassy Recommendation applications run 12–15 months ahead. It is a separate, earlier track, and missing it costs a year — not a place.
Decide your language route
Japanese-medium with a language-school year, or an English-taught G30 or SGU programme. Everything downstream follows from this.
Sit your tests
EJU and JLPT for Japanese-medium entry; IELTS or TOEFL for English-taught. Requirements are set per university.
Apply and get accepted
University, vocational college or language school. Aim at the April or October intake.
Hand over your COE documents
Your school lodges the case with the Immigration Services Agency. Roughly one to three months of processing, and the real assessment.
MoEST NOC, then remit fees
Nepal's approval before any tuition transfer, within the Nepal Rastra Bank ceilings.
Visa at the Japanese Embassy in Kathmandu
With the original COE, inside its three-month validity. Reported at four to eight weeks.
Land, and register
Residence card at the airport, municipal registration, health insurance, bank account — and the work permission you need before any job.
Japanese housing has a feature that catches almost every new arrival, so deal with it before you fly.
Many Japanese rentals require a guarantor — a person or company that accepts liability for your rent. Schools and community networks commonly help arrange one.
Which is why arranging your first housing from Nepal, through your school, is the normal path rather than the cautious one:
School dormitories
The simplest first landing. Limited places, allocated early — ask as soon as you are accepted.
Share houses
Common for international students, and usually available without a guarantor.
Private rentals
Cheaper long-term, but expect key money, deposits and a guarantor requirement. Better arranged after you arrive.
Carry in hand: passport with visa, the original COE, your acceptance letter, the MoEST NOC, financial and sponsor documents, translated certificates, some yen in cash, and your accommodation details. The COE is presented again at the border — it does not go in the hold.
Japan front-loads its administration, and most of it happens at one municipal counter.
At the airport: your residence card (在留カード) is issued free on landing at Narita, Haneda, Kansai or Chubu
Then at your municipal office: complete resident registration at your municipal office, which records your address
At the same visit: enrol in National Health Insurance — mandatory, at a reduced student rate
And once you have the card: open a bank account, get a phone, and pick up an IC transit card
The residence card is your primary identification for everything that follows — a bank account, a phone contract, a rental agreement. Nothing much can happen until you have it, which is why it is handed to you at the airport rather than posted later.
Japan also has the largest and most active Nepali community of any non-English-speaking destination in this guide, concentrated in Tokyo. For a first job, a room, or someone who has already solved the problem in front of you, that network is a genuine asset — use it early.
You need Permission to Engage in Activity Other Than That Permitted Under the Status of Residence before you may work at all. Request it at the airport on arrival, or later at an immigration office.
Once you hold it:
The limits: 28 hours a week in term, and up to 8 hours a day during long vacations
Twenty-eight hours is among the most generous allowances in this guide, and Japan's part-time market genuinely absorbs student labour. Working beyond the permitted hours puts your residence status at risk, and the hours are counted across all your jobs, not per employer.
Most of that work will be in Japanese. It is, in practice, where a lot of students' language actually improves — which makes the early months harder and the later ones considerably easier.