NICT — National Institute of Information and Communications Technology

Yes. NICT — National Institute of Information and Communications Technology has accepted international graduate students and visiting researchers historically. Verify with the lab page directly for current openings.

NICT — National Institute of Information and Communications Technology maintains an English-language web presence and welcomes English-speaking researchers. Internal lab communication may still be partly Japanese, but English-only researchers can typically join.

Apply to the parent institution's graduate program (or postdoc opportunity for industry/government labs). Email the lab head 6-12 months before your target start date — see our guide on emailing Japanese professors.

For university-affiliated labs, MEXT scholarship (full tuition + ¥1.7M/year stipend) covers admission via either Embassy Recommendation or the lab's University Recommendation track. JASSO Honors Scholarship and foundation scholarships add monthly stipends. For industry/government labs, employer-funded internships and JSPS fellowships are typical paths.

Primary fields: Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Physics. See the lab's official site for current specific research themes.

For university labs: yes — PhD students typically affiliate with one lab for the full duration of their program. For OIST: students do 3 lab rotations in year 1 then choose a primary lab. For industry/government labs (Preferred Networks, RIKEN AIP, etc.): typically you do the PhD with a partner university and intern at the industry lab — full-time PhD enrollment at the industry lab is rare.

Japanese labs typically have 10-30 members including the PI, postdocs, PhD students, Master's students, and sometimes undergraduates. Industry research labs vary widely from small startup teams (5-10) to large corporate research divisions (100+). Contact the lab directly for current numbers.