Hokkaido University Admission 2028: Deadlines, Requirements, Fees for International Students

Admission at a glance

Hokkaido University is a national research university based in Sapporo, on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, and one of the country's former imperial universities. Its main dedicated route for international undergraduate applicants is the Modern Japanese Studies Program (MJSP): a 4.5-year bachelor's degree beginning with a six-month Intensive Japanese Course, then four years of degree study taught roughly half in Japanese and half in English. Applicants with intermediate Japanese or higher can apply for exemption from the preparatory course and enter the degree course directly.

MJSP runs two application rounds a year. This project verified the cycle covering an Intensive Japanese Course starting October 2027 and the Bachelor's degree course itself starting April 2028: a first call with online registration from 27 October to 4 November 2026, interviews in January 2027 and results in February 2027, and a second call with registration in February 2027, interviews in April 2027 and results in May 2027. Hokkaido charges the same standard national tuition to Japanese and international students, and the university states that MJSP entrants starting in this cycle will have their enrollment and tuition fees fully waived, with continuing partial or full waivers in later years available on academic merit.

Requirements

Bachelor's (Modern Japanese Studies Program)

Applicants need to have completed, or be on track to complete, 12 years of school education recognised as equivalent to Japanese upper secondary school. No Japanese ability is required to apply, though applicants at intermediate level or above may apply for exemption from the Intensive Japanese Course and begin the degree course directly.

Master's and PhD

Each graduate school sets its own requirements and deadline; a relevant Bachelor's degree (or Master's degree for doctoral study) recognised as equivalent to a Japanese degree is the general baseline.

Full requirements and documents