The guide

Osaka

Japan · Asia-Pacific

Japan's industrial second city: heavy engineering, electronics, materials and pharmaceuticals, with the manufacturers that actually hire for them headquartered in the region.

Who this suits, and who it doesn’t

Suits you if you want engineering or applied science next to the companies that manufacture it, and will commit to the language. Look elsewhere if you want an English-speaking career or the density of international employers — that is Tokyo, and even there it is smaller than people expect.

The catch, and the way in

The catch

Less international than Tokyo, so Japanese is needed sooner, and the graduate hiring calendar is rigid in a way that catches foreigners out.

The way in

MEXT government scholarships cover tuition, travel and a monthly allowance for research and undergraduate students alike, and national universities charge internationals the same fees as Japanese students.

Living there

What living here is actually like

The informal, food-obsessed counterweight to Tokyo — louder, blunter and easier to talk to strangers in, which people who have lived in both consistently say is the real difference. Rents are meaningfully below Tokyo's, the transport is superb and no car is needed. Being visibly foreign registers more here than in the capital, in both the warm and the awkward senses.

How the money works

National university fees are set nationally and are identical for international students, which makes Japan much cheaper to study in than its reputation suggests; the government scholarship removes them entirely and adds a monthly allowance. Living costs are dominated by rent and by the deposits and guarantor requirements that make moving in expensive at the start rather than each month.Described in shape rather than figures on purpose: rents and salaries move every year and we cannot keep numbers true, but what is expensive and what quietly eats income stays true for far longer.

The language you actually need

Research groups will use English on paper and Japanese in the room, and the hiring system expects business-level Japanese from anyone joining a Japanese company. English-track degrees are growing, but treat them as a way in rather than as a way to avoid learning the language.

The work that clusters here

Fields with a real market in this city

Engineering · Natural Sciences · Computer Science · Business & Economics

Who is named here

Not a ranking and not in order of merit — the places a subject is actually studied and taught at in this city, so you have something to search for.

Osaka University
- Engineering
- Medicine & Health
- Natural Sciences
Some English-taught programmes

Language of teaching moves within a cycle — check it on the university’s own page for your own entry year.