2027 cycle¥1,800,000 total36-month

Honjo International Scholarship Foundation

¥150,000/month for ~3 years for international graduate students at Japanese universities — one of Japan’s most generous private foundation awards. ~50 grants/year.

Data refreshed: April 1, 2026

The Honjo International Scholarship Foundation (本庄国際奨学財団) is one of the most respected privately funded scholarships available to international graduate students in Japan. Established in 1996 by the Honjo family — long-time benefactors of international education exchange — the foundation funds non-Japanese master's and doctoral students at Japanese universities with a stipend of ¥150,000 per month for the standard duration of the degree. For a three-year doctoral student, that is ¥5.4 million in living-cost support, paid monthly with no requirement to repay. Honjo is structured as living-cost support rather than a full-funding package, which means applicants typically pair it with a university tuition waiver — a combination that, for an international student already admitted to a Japanese graduate program, often produces a stronger overall package than MEXT in real take-home terms. For the 2027 cycle Honjo continues at the same rate it has paid since the early 2020s, with the application window opening in September 2026.

What Honjo actually pays for

Honjo is deliberately simple in its structure. The foundation pays each scholarship recipient ¥150,000 per month, deposited on the 25th of each month into a Japanese bank account, for the standard duration of their current degree. Tuition is not reimbursed. Airfare is not covered. There is no separate research grant. There is no dependents allowance. Honjo treats the monthly stipend as cost-of-living support for one international graduate student and asks the recipient to handle tuition through other means. Because most Japanese graduate programs offer 30–100 percent tuition reduction for international students by default — see our breakdown of the cheapest universities in Japan for international graduates — Honjo plus a tuition waiver works out to a fully-funded package for most recipients without further effort.

Compared to MEXT, the trade-off is clear. MEXT pays roughly ¥143,000–¥145,000 per month and includes tuition and airfare; Honjo pays ¥150,000 per month and includes none of that. If your university offers a 100 percent tuition waiver and you are not flying between Japan and a far-away home country every year, Honjo is comparable to or slightly better than MEXT in net terms — and it does not come with the bureaucratic overhead and placement constraints that MEXT applies. Our comparison of MEXT stipend 2027 versus real costs walks through the maths in detail and shows where Honjo wins on flexibility.

Eligibility and who Honjo is for

Honjo is open to international students of any nationality enrolled at, or holding a firm letter of acceptance from, a Japanese graduate school at master's or doctoral level. The foundation does not exclude any country. There is no formal age limit, but the typical recipient is between 22 and 30 at the time of award. Applicants must be pursuing a regular degree program in Japan — not a research-student status, not an auditing arrangement, not a non-degree exchange. Kenkyusei applicants who have a clear master's offer for the following April are sometimes considered. The foundation explicitly asks that applicants are not also receiving a full government living-cost scholarship such as MEXT or JDS at the time of application.

In practice the strongest applicants for Honjo are international students who have already secured admission to a Japanese university but did not get the embassy MEXT slot. Many Honjo recipients also hold their university's tuition waiver and are looking specifically for living-cost support. If you are still planning your application path, our overview of the application timeline for Japanese graduate schools explains how Honjo fits alongside the university and embassy MEXT calendars. Country-specific readers should also consult our regional MEXT guides for Indian students, Vietnamese students, and Indonesian students, since Honjo functions as the second-best fallback after the embassy MEXT track in each of those pipelines.

Application timing for 2027

Honjo runs one cycle per year. For students who want funding starting in April 2027 the timeline is roughly:

  • September 2026: application portal opens; supporting documents released.
  • Early November 2026: application deadline (typically the first week of November).
  • November–December 2026: document review and shortlisting.
  • January–February 2027: interviews — in person in Tokyo for Japan-resident applicants, by video for overseas applicants.
  • March 2027: final selection announced.
  • April 2027: funding starts; first stipend deposit on or around 25 April 2027.

Honjo does not run a second cycle for autumn-entry students. If you are entering a Japanese graduate program in September or October 2026 you can still apply in autumn 2026 and receive funding from April 2027 onwards — your first six months of study will not be Honjo-funded but the remaining duration will be. Plan your savings or alternative funding to bridge that gap.

What the application demands

The Honjo application asks for academic transcripts, a personal statement, a research plan (usually two to four pages depending on degree level), two recommendation letters, proof of admission or an admission status statement from the prospective Japanese university, a financial declaration, and a resumé. The research plan is the most weighted item: Honjo panellists are accustomed to reading research plans across all disciplines and they look for clarity, originality, and a credible link between the applicant's previous work and the proposed Japan-based research. A research plan that reads as a continuation of a bachelor's thesis with a Japanese supervisor lined up is dramatically stronger than one that reads as a generic statement of purpose. Our guide on studying AI and ML in Japan shows what a discipline-fit research plan looks like for one of the more competitive fields.

The interview

Shortlisted applicants are invited to a 20–30 minute interview with a Honjo panel of three to five reviewers, mostly retired academics and foundation board members. The interview is in either Japanese or English depending on the applicant's program of study. Questions are not technical in the way a thesis defence is — panellists do not press on methodology details. Instead they probe motivation, fit, future plans, and the applicant's self-awareness about why Japan is the right place to do this work. Common questions include "Why this lab and not a similar one elsewhere?", "What will you do for the year after the scholarship ends?", and "How does this research connect to a problem that matters in your home country?". Applicants who treat the interview as a conversation and not a test perform consistently better.

Honjo plus other funding

Honjo is the canonical second-stipend stacking partner with a Japanese university tuition waiver. It is also fully compatible with the JASSO Honors Scholarship in some cases, with a part-time research-assistant stipend at your supervising lab, and with most foundation-specific top-ups. It is not compatible with MEXT, JDS, ADB-Japan, or any other full-funding government scholarship. If you are a PhD student looking to stack multiple funding streams across a five- or six-year program, our breakdown of PhD in Japan funding, duration, and English-track options walks through several real funding stacks Honjo recipients use. Engineering doctoral applicants in particular should consult our engineering doctorate Japan path for the full life-of-degree picture.

Is Honjo right for your application?

Honjo is the right scholarship for an internationally-oriented graduate applicant who has already secured a strong Japanese university offer (or is on track for one), holds a tuition waiver from that university, and wants stable monthly living-cost funding without the placement and reporting overhead of MEXT. It is not the right scholarship for an applicant who has not yet secured a university spot — Honjo cannot place you in a Japanese lab. It is also not the right scholarship for an applicant with a country-specific government channel (LPDP for Indonesia, JN Tata for India, Fulbright for the US) that is already paying for everything; double-funding in those cases is usually disallowed. If you are coming from the United States, our studying in Japan from the USA guide compares Honjo to Fulbright Japan in detail; applicants from India should read studying in Japan from India for the equivalent comparison.

Background Japanese for Honjo applicants

Honjo does not formally require any JLPT certificate. In practice, applicants who interview in Japanese consistently do better — and more importantly, the lab and university life that Honjo is funding will be considerably easier with at least JLPT N3 level Japanese. An English-medium program is no excuse to skip Japanese entirely; cafeterias, dorm contracts, healthcare appointments, and most everyday interactions still happen in Japanese. Building N3 before arrival is the single highest-leverage thing an incoming Honjo recipient can do, and it tends to pay back during the interview as well.

The 2027 outlook

Honjo's 2027 cycle continues the existing structure: one annual application window in autumn 2026, ¥150,000 per month for the duration of the degree, no tuition coverage, no airfare. The foundation has not announced any change to its country distribution or its discipline mix. Recipient numbers have stayed in the 50–70 range for over a decade. For strong applicants from any country who have already secured a Japanese graduate offer, Honjo remains, alongside Heiwa Nakajima and Rotary Yoneyama, one of the three private-foundation scholarships that any serious 2027 applicant should put on the shortlist. Read our broader English-taught master's in Japan 2027 guide and the MEXT scholarship 2027 complete guide to position Honjo correctly in your overall funding strategy, and browse all university profiles and the full scholarship database to identify the universities most likely to pair a tuition waiver with a Honjo stipend.

Frequently asked questions

How much does the Honjo International Scholarship pay in 2027?

The Honjo International Scholarship Foundation pays a flat ¥150,000 per month, with no tuition reimbursement and no airfare. Over a typical three-year tenure that is ¥5,400,000 in stipend support, which makes Honjo one of the most generous private scholarships available to international graduate students in Japan. The amount has been stable since the early 2020s and the 2027 cycle continues at the same rate. There is no separate research grant and no top-up for dependents — Honjo treats the stipend as living-cost support and assumes the student already has tuition handled either through a university tuition waiver or another source.

How long does Honjo funding last?

Honjo is normally awarded for the standard duration of the degree the student is enrolled in at the time of application: two years for a master's, three years for a PhD, and up to five years for an integrated master's-and-PhD plan in some cases. The scholarship is renewed each year subject to satisfactory academic progress, but Honjo does not require students to reapply from scratch — once selected you stay funded as long as the foundation's annual progress review is positive. If you change degrees mid-tenure (for example, if you drop from PhD to master's) the foundation will recalculate end date.

Who is eligible to apply for Honjo in 2027?

Honjo is open to international students of any nationality who are enrolled at, or have firm acceptance to, a Japanese graduate school at master's or doctoral level. There is no age limit in the general announcement but applicants who would still be enrolled at age 35 are sometimes treated more carefully. Honjo does not require a Japanese language certificate but applicants studying in Japanese-medium programs should hold at least JLPT N2; English-medium programs are accepted without a JLPT requirement. Applicants must not concurrently hold MEXT or another major government scholarship that already covers full living costs.

When does the Honjo application cycle open and close?

Honjo runs a single annual cycle. Applications typically open in late summer (August–September of the year before the funding year) and close in autumn (October–early November). Document review and shortlisting happen in November and December. Interviews, conducted in person in Tokyo or by video for overseas applicants, are scheduled in January and February. Final selection is announced in March, with funding starting in April for the new Japanese academic year. For the 2027 cycle that means an application window roughly September 2026 to early November 2026, with funding starting April 2027.

Is the Honjo interview in Japanese or English?

Honjo conducts interviews in either Japanese or English depending on the applicant's declared language and program of study. Applicants in Japanese-medium programs are usually interviewed in Japanese; English-medium-program applicants are usually interviewed in English. The interview is conversational rather than technical: panellists ask about your research plan, why you chose Japan, how Honjo support fits into your career trajectory, and what you intend to do after graduation. Japanese ability is not formally scored, but applicants who interview in fluent Japanese tend to be remembered favourably even when the formal interview is in English.

Can I hold Honjo together with a tuition waiver?

Yes — and this is the standard combination for Honjo recipients. Honjo expects you to have tuition covered separately, typically through a Japanese university's built-in tuition reduction or full waiver scheme for international students, or through a partial scholarship from your university. Holding Honjo plus a 50–100 percent tuition waiver is the most common funding stack for non-MEXT international students at Waseda, Keio, Sophia, and the imperial universities. You cannot hold Honjo concurrently with a full government living-cost scholarship like MEXT, but Honjo plus a tuition waiver is explicitly allowed.

How competitive is Honjo and how many recipients per year?

Honjo selects roughly 50 to 70 new recipients per year across all subjects and all Japanese universities. The applicant pool is in the low thousands, so the headline acceptance rate is single-digit, but the foundation places significant weight on a clear research direction and a credible career plan, so well-prepared STEM and social-science applicants from competitive Japanese universities convert at a notably higher rate than the headline number suggests. Honjo does not publish discipline quotas. Applicants from outside the imperial seven and Tokyo private universities are increasingly represented; admissions are not concentrated only in UTokyo and Kyoto.

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