Application path · Undergraduate

Junior College → University Transfer (Hennyu)

On this route you first earn a junior-college degree (短期大学士) in Japan, then use it to transfer (編入) into a mid-year intake at a four-year university and finish the bachelor's in the remaining two years. Unlike the専門学校 path, a junior college sits inside the university system and grants a degree, not a title — and MEXT lists junior-college graduates as a statutory transfer-eligible group, so your qualification is cleaner and your credits and syllabi map more readily onto the receiving faculty. It suits students already enrolled at a Japanese junior college who want to build language and academic footing in stages, and who can accept that transfer offers narrow choices judged at each school's discretion. Since you're usually already in Japan on a「留学」status, you continue via residence renewal rather than re-running an overseas COE. The catch: whether you land in third year, how many credits are recognized, and whether you graduate in two years all depend on whether the target faculty runs transfers that year and how it counts credits — the closer your major, the more stable; a big mismatch can drop you to second year or force make-up coursework and delayed graduation.