If Japan is your preferred study destination, that’s a good decision because Japan is the go-to country for high-quality education. However, to move to Japan and study, you have to pass the visa interview. So, in this post, we will talk about Japanese student visa interview questions and answers that will help you to succeed. According to multiple sources, Japan’s student visa success rate is between 80 and 95 percent. Now, this really depends on your country. If you want to study in Japan and want to know about the visa and its process and documents, you should read this. This article covers the Japanese student visa interview questions. That is, the questions asked in the embassy interview and how to deal with them. Without wasting much time, let’s move to the visa interview questions.
Japanese Student Visa Interview Questions
The first important thing to have in mind is that your entire interview will be in English, and if you are stuck with any question, they might ask in your local language. Also, your responses have to be natural. This means that you should not provide scripted answers. That said, let’s get into these interview questions that you will be asked.
1. What is your name, passport number, and date of birth?
The first question will likely require you to say your name, your passport number, and your date of birth. You should have these things ready. Then you can tell them, ‘Just a second, let me open my document.’
2. What is the name of your college and course and where is it located?
As part of the Japanese student visa interview questions, you will be asked about the name of your college, the course you are doing, and where is the college located in Japan. You have to talk about the college you have applied to. I believe that you should already have this information at the tip of your finger. Make sure you have seen the pamphlet of the college, you know the details of the course, and have it memorized that this is the course and college. You want the Japanese consular officer to know that you know about your preferred college and course of study.
3. What is the duration of this course?
The next question is about the duration of the course. You should know how long you will stay in Japan for this course. You should know what to answer whenever this is asked. Whether it’s a 4-year course or 3, just tell that to the visa officer.
4. How did you know about this college?
One of the Japanese student visa interview questions is going to be about how you found out about this college. Your answer can be that you found the school’s advertisement online or a friend shared it with you. It could also be that you came across someone’s comment on a forum about the university or college and decided to check it out. Don’t say that you hired an agent to find you the college. This will sound like you did not make this decision yourself.
5. Why do you want to study in Japan?
You should have a proper answer to this. It should not be like, ‘Just because Japan is a good country, I want to study there.’ In this question, they want to know what benefit you are doing there, for both countries. You can emphasize your reason to be that Japan is one of the most highly-ranked universities in the world. Japanese universities rank in the top 30 in the world. For example, the University of Tokyo ranks 29th, according to Times Higher Education. We also have Kyoto University at 55th. So, this can make a good reason why you choose Japan.
6. Why do you choose only Japan?
The next question is, ‘Why only Japan?’ You want to go to Japan, you gave your answer, but why only Japan? There are other countries too, and IT is very much in trend nowadays. I was directly asked, ‘It is also happening in India, why are you going to Japan? Do it from here.’ Then you need an appropriate answer, what is such a thing in Japan that fascinates you, their culture, their working culture, lifestyle? You can mention this, ‘They are very punctual, I want to bring those qualities in me, that’s why I want to study in Japan.’ These can be your reasons. Write a good two to three-line answer, and memorize it. You can also back these with facts.
7. How did you learn the Japanese language?
When this comes as one of the Japanese student visa interview questions, be honest with your response. If you have done self-study, you can tell the visa officer, ‘Self-study, this is it, I collected material from YouTube, these are my certificates, I gave JLPT from this month to this month.’ Or if you have done it from an institute, what is the name of the institute, the name of the teacher of the institute, and the address of the institute? You should know this clearly, and memorized. It should not be like you are taking time to answer, they will think you are cheating. You can give the interview without any tension, they are very cooperative. I didn’t even realize that the interview was going on. Later I thought, ‘All the questions have been asked, so this was the interview.
So, if you know a bit of Japanese, they will ask you to say it in Japanese to check if you have a conversation level or not, whether you will be able to survive there or not. So, you can try to convert all the answers into Japanese and tell them. You might speak for about 2 minutes, then your answers are over. If there are more questions from the front, then it’s a different thing. They may say, ‘Yes, tell us more, tell us more.’ So, you can add like three more lines and that’s it, and they will be satisfied.
8. Do you plan to work in Japan?
So, this is going to be our last Japanese student visa interview question to expect—your plans after your studies in Japan. One hint I will give you is to keep in mind how you intend to create connectivity between your home country and Japan, and what kind of bridge work you will do. What will be the benefit to your home country when you are going to study in Japan? Include in your answers that if I go to Japan, I will learn and want to come back, I want to establish something in my home country. It becomes a very good answer. Here, while studying there, I want to support and guide the young people, young persons of my home country. So, you have to bring this quality to your answers.
Remember, this is a study visa and not a work visa. Therefore, the consular officer does not expect you to say that you plan to work in Japan. They will consider it an ulterior motive and will reject your study visa.
Japan Study Visa Application Process
So, let’s just brush through the study visa application process in case you have not yet reached the interview stage.
1. Gain Admission
The first requirement is to be admitted to a school in Japan. You will need the admission letter for your interview. Usually, with this admission letter, your chance of receiving a visa is high.
2. Certificate of Eligibility (CoE)
Once admitted, the school will apply for a Certificate of Eligibility on your behalf. This is a critical document issued by the Immigration Bureau in Japan. This shows that you meet the criteria for the student visa. After the CoE is approved and issued, the university or college will mail it to you. This document is vital for your subsequent visa application.
3. Visa Application
With the Certificate of Eligibility (CoE) in hand, you can now proceed to apply for a student visa at a Japanese embassy or consulate in your home country. You will generally be required to submit the CoE, your passport, application forms, photographs, and other documents as specified by the embassy or consulate. So, alongside other documents, you are ready for the visa interview.
Now, it doesn’t end with the interview questions. It may happen that when the embassy calls, they find some document of yours missing. So, they will tell you, ‘This document is missing, please provide it quickly on this email.’ You don’t need to physically go there; you can send a PDF. I had sent it. This has happened to some students that I know. Generally, the interview session is about 15 to 20 minutes long. It’s not a brief interview but you must prove that you indeed want to travel to Japan for your studies.
Conclusion
We have now been able to look at the common Japanese student visa interview questions and answers that will help you succeed. With this article, you should know how to crack your visa interview and also how to deliver your answers. Keep in mind the minor but important details such as avoiding saying that you are open to Japanese jobs. Also, know your material. For example, don’t make it look like you are struggling to recall the name of the school or the name of the course when questioned. Good luck!
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