Online Japanese courses for university admission in Japan

International students reach a degree taught in Japanese by one of three routes. Each route asks for a different proof of Japanese.

The EJU, the Examination for Japanese University Admission for International Students, is run by JASSO, the Japan Student Services Organization. According to JASSO, universities use it to check whether applicants have the Japanese and the basic academic abilities for study in Japan. The JLPT, the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test, is the most widely taken general Japanese exam, and universities in Japan often ask for N2 or N1. Unlike the EJU, the JLPT tests neither subject knowledge nor writing.

The JFT-Basic is the Japan Foundation's computer-based test of everyday Japanese. According to the Japan Foundation, you can use it to apply for the Student status of residence if you enrol at a Japanese language education institution.

The EJU, JASSO's admission exam for international students, has four subjects, namely Japanese as a Foreign Language, Science, Japan and the World, and Mathematics. You take the subjects that your target university and course require. A single exam lets universities compare applicants whose school grades come from very different school systems.

The Japanese section combines reading comprehension, listening comprehension and a listening-reading part, in which you answer questions on spoken texts with printed material. The writing task is scored separately. All other subjects are available in Japanese or English, while the Japanese section is given in Japanese only. In 2026 the EJU also takes place in 13 countries or regions outside Japan.

The writing task of the EJU asks for an essay in Japanese on a set topic. According to JASSO, raters judge how clearly the essay addresses the topic, how good its reasons are, how well it is organised and developed, and how appropriate the language is.

An essay scores 0 if it is blank, off topic or contains fewer than 40 characters of relevant Japanese text. A course should therefore train you to state a position, support it with reasons and examples and close with a conclusion. The JLPT has no writing part, so learners who prepared only for the JLPT often meet essay writing for the first time in the EJU.

General courses teach the polite -masu and desu forms, which suit conversation with strangers. Reports, theses and many academic texts use the plain written style instead, called de aru style after its sentence ending. A course for university therefore has to teach a second set of sentence endings for writing. In seminars and in conversations with professors the polite spoken forms remain normal, so you need both styles side by side.

Academic texts also contain far more kanji than everyday texts, especially words of Chinese origin, called kango. Lectures add fast speech and technical terms.

The US Foreign Service Institute, the language school of the State Department, puts professional fluency in Japanese at about 2,200 classroom hours. A degree taught in Japanese needs a level close to that, so preparation usually takes several years.

Many students combine three phases. An online course at home covers kana, the polite forms and the first JLPT levels. A Japanese language school in Japan then adds intensive hours and daily use. Targeted EJU preparation with mock essays and timed listening comes last.

The JLPT levels serve as milestones on the way. According to the official level summary, N3 means that you grasp summary information such as newspaper headlines, while N2 and N1 cover texts and conversations at natural speed.

1. Does the course practise essays in the plain de aru style with feedback on reasons and structure?
2. Does it train listening with long recordings, such as lectures?
3. Does it build academic vocabulary in kanji, including kango?
4. Does it prepare for the EJU subjects your university requires, or only for the JLPT?
5. Do lesson times work across the time difference? Japan is UTC+9 all year.

Ask for a sample lesson with a short academic text. You see at once whether the teacher explains style and structure or only new words. A good course also sets regular timed essays, because the EJU essay is written under time pressure in the exam room.