Are Japanese Universities Hard? Three Factors To Consider

Are Japanese universities hard? From my experience, not really. But we have to be careful with applying a handful of experiences to describe a nation-wide context. Still, most international students will probably tell you graduating is not difficult – at least not from an academics standpoint.

Maybe you’re wondering if you can hold your own in a Japanese classroom. After all, it’s normal to feel out of place in a new environment. You’ll have to deal with an educational system and classroom culture likely very different from your own. Your social life will be turned on it’s ear, and you may experience things the “study abroad brochure” didn’t mention.

How quickly you can adjust affects your performance.

Getting a cliché out of the way

Anyone familiar with Japanese education knows the old truism that getting into university is harder than getting through it. However, for international students entering a decent university is often easier, at least for those who choose to study in English medium programs.

Still, there are a lot of factors that may affect ones performance at a Japanese university, like the type of program and language medium, or how well adjusted one is to the Japanese way of education and life in general.

For many, university life presents challenges outside the classroom as well as in. Still for most domestic and international students I teach, graduating is not a problem. Most do just fine in their classes when managing their time reasonably well.

A lot depends on whether your attending a good university. Nevertheless, the following three aspects of Japanese university life are worth considering:

#1 Teacher centered approach

Are you typically eager to answer the teachers questions during lectures? Do you like taking opportunities to share your ideas in class? How do you feel about active participation during class discussions? Do long lectures and note taking leave you bored and uninspired?

The most likely difficulty a foreign student might face in the classroom is the way things are done. In content classes, you may find teachers have a tendency to lecture uninterrupted a bit more than you’re used to. I found this out firsthand soon after my introduction to Japanese university.

Teacher-centered methodology is another one of those cliches those familiar with Japanese education are all aware of. In my case, I was presented with a questions in which the teacher was looking for a simple yes or no. Once answered, they were able to continue their point. No meaningful comments, follow up questions, or validation of my idea.

I came to realize in some cases we students weren’t meant to insert ourselves into lectures in such an active way.

Not being free to interact with the instructor during class can add difficulty to Japanese university. The teacher can seem not approachable and the experience impersonal. It’s not universal among all teachers and may depend on the type of class, but it is noticeable.

Clash of culture

The difference between teaching styles I was used to back home and my experience studying in Japan comes down to differences in perception about where knowledge derives. Bear with me here.

In Japanese education, knowledge tends to be viewed as a originating from the teacher and transferred to the student. Others have written about this, and philosophy aside, this model tends to represent my experience.

This is in contrast to the debate focused west. Discussion and the exchange of ideas are valued as the vehicle for arriving at a new point in one’s knowledge. I’m generalizing, but it’s not uncommon for a linguistics teacher in the US to tell a student, “I not sure, let’s explore that.”

Conversely, Japanese teachers tend to put up a shield of invincibility. Of course, there are things they don’t know. No one can know everything, but to admit that a teacher runs the risk of losing face in a Japanese classroom.

In practice, this often leads to a lot of listening to teachers talk about what they do know. Some are more progressive than others in their methodology. Skills-based courses will usually be more “hands on” and therefore interesting.

However, for anything declarative, you’ll be in for a lecture-based snooze fest. I’ve walked by quite a few business theory classes in progress, and no one’s having a good time.

Spare me the lecture – cheap tip 1

A practical approach to avoiding lecture heavy curriculum is to understand if the content is declarative or procedural in nature. In an intensive language program, students are less likely to encounter as much passive listening. One needs to develop skills that lectures alone cannot satisfy.

Studying Japanese business management for example, you’re in for a lot of theory. This means you will likely get a professor with a prestigious background talking your ear off for 90 minutes. They didn’t all those honors and awards studying “how to be an engaging teacher.”

#2 Rigid rule systems

In Japan, vague or unenforced rules and guidelines are common. However, when an institution wants you to do something in a specific way, they tend to be very careful about leaving no grey areas for interpretation. This is also true at university.

The attendance policy accepted as standard at most universities illustrates rigidity in university rules. Students can miss 5 classes before automatically failing a class. Most students don’t have an issue here, but if this sounds like you, than you”ll have problems.

Added to the attendance situation is the policy on tardiness. Some teachers can be very strict about arriving on time. As a student’s late count piles up, they role over into absences. At my school, every 3 late classes become an absence.

Therefore, if a student were late to every class by just a couple minutes, they could conceivably fail that course. 15 weeks (a typical Japanese semester) divided by 3 (late days) equals 5 absences. As a more realistic example, maybe you miss 4 classes, and have a bunch of lates. This kind of sounds like someone trying to fail, doesn’t it? Well, it happens.

In fact, most students who fail typically neglect to come. Less often, for whatever reason, they didn’t turn in the assignments. Or occasionally, there is the odd student who clearly didn’t prepare for a presentation or other final assessment. Each can be avoided with a little discipline and effort.

Most don’t struggle with attendance, but I’ve seen this policy bite otherwise good students, both Japanese and foreign. The rules are a hard line that teachers probably won’t cross to help you out. It’s an important example of rigidity, but you’ll find many others while a part of Japanese life. These may contribute to making university in Japan a little more difficult.

Avoiding accidents – cheap tip 2

It takes some effort to miss 6 out of 15 weeks. Still, I’ve had some cases where students didn’t know their absent count, and thought they’ll just blow off one more class. Recently, some of my less reliable students use phone apps to track their attendance.

#3 Social life

Meeting people and making friends will inevitably influence your time at a Japanese university. It’s not particularly hard to meet other students, but making close friendships can be a struggle in some situations. A bad social experience is one more aspect of academic life that can make university that much harder.

I’ve personally surveyed over a thousand students in Japan, and it’s evident many first years have high expectations for the first few weeks of the semester. This is prime time for making friendships that define their college life, like a big game of social musical chairs.

That students envision some kind of expiration date on making new friends shows a real difference in culture from back in the US. We’re a lot more anytime, anywhere in our approach. You could sum up the difference with the saying back home, “A stranger is a friend you haven’t met yet.” In Japan, if there isn’t a clear time, place and reason to meet, than a stranger is usually just a stranger.

Getting back to normal

Especially during the COVID era, I’ve heard from dozens of incoming freshman who expressed disappointment at having the traditional avenues to meeting and making friends shut down by health restrictions.

Simply put, online learning was not kind to the social side of university life. Things have gotten better since health worries have eased up, but it all demonstrates a point; the beginning of freshmen year is seen as a time to find your place.

Studying in English medium classes, you’ll be with other international students. You’ll all be in the same boat and you can lean on each other to navigate the social side of studying abroad.

However, I find many of my international students in Japanese medium classes can have a tougher time. It’s no one’s fault, just some awkwardness that takes more effort to get past.

Join the club – cheap tip 3

Teams and school clubs are a big thing at Japanese universities. If you have an interest that is supported by a club (called a circle in Japanese), it’s a great way to meet like-minded students.

To sum up

You may be asking what about language difficulties? If you’re excepted to a program that’s all in Japanese, you would’ve had to attain a high level language proficiency anyway. That is whole different story and goes beyond the scope of this post.

Highlighting the points above, I may seem like I’m exaggerating. If so, let me temper that by stating clearly that none of these three issues should deter the average person from studying abroad at a Japanese university. The experience will most likely be positive and memorable, as it was for me.