Tools Center · Lifecycle Tool Map
Each stage is broken down into tools that are easy to start.
Not in Japan yet, or just decided to come — sort out route, degree, budget, language, and timeline first. This stage is mostly lightweight tools: route checks, estimates, checklists, and timelines.
Route planner (which degree & path) · Japan university guide (national/private tiers & top schools by field)
Compare your profile and intent against seven standard routes, surface 2–3 relative candidates and gaps, then produce a printable A4 plan. Unsupported dates and figures stay in the to-confirm list.
A cross-sectional view of tiers, groupings and field strengths — build the map before narrowing targets.
Language-school selection guide (accreditation, visa rate, progression, cost pitfalls) · Region atlas (9 regions filtered by industry/support/climate)
A cross-cutting guide: distinguishing 告示校/適正校/認定校 (three grades of accredited language school) and the transition, the withheld-COE chain and risk signals, the cumulative-headcount (延べ) / denominator / destination inflation of progression rates, fees and refund clauses plus agent tactics, the renewal+progression double-kill of monthly attendance <80% guidance / <50% reporting, and a school-choice checklist (a reference snapshot, official-first).
It does not recommend schools and generates no assessment. Search the two official registers — the Immigration gazette (Appendix 1) and MEXT accreditation — then place 1–5 institutions side by side to compare the registered entries: name, English name, prefecture, course text, register, and data snapshot. Tuition, progression records, and similar self-reported figures are not in the registers, so twenty questions are supplied for you to put to each school.
After you've chosen a school, screen cities by relative cost tier, industry clues, multilingual support, climate hard-constraints, and persona fit: 9 regions + a Tokyo-metro overlay, student distribution / university density, the campus-location trap, common misjudgments, and official entries (relative pictures only — no exact amounts or rankings; exact figures are delegated to the budget tool).
Study plan (back-calculated JP/EN pacing) · Scholarship finder (MEXT/JASSO/local/private) · Cost estimator
Reverse-engineer the Japanese & English you actually need from your target, with your level and months left.
Browse pre- and post-arrival options: MEXT, JASSO, local and foundation scholarships, plus tuition waivers (reference only; confirm official amounts and deadlines).
Estimate tuition, rent, and living-cost ranges by region and school type.
Run through documents, materials & final checks before you fly
Organize seals, documents (COE, translation, and notarization), cash, 100V electronics, and medicines by country, separating what to prepare before departure from what to buy after arrival.
Uses only sponsorship facts confirmed on this screen to check four evidence lines: originals, notarization, translation, and funding continuity. For a non-parent sponsor it separates the relationship, support method, and evidence of ability. Missing facts stay marked “to enter,” unsupported numbers stay “verify,” and only then are working drafts of both sponsorship letters produced. Re-check the target school's and official requirements before submission.
Housing (first place to stay) · Entry procedures preview (residence/immigration) · Part-time work rules for students
Before departure, understand the differences between dorms and private rentals, the signing flow, guarantors, and upfront costs, so you know what to confirm with a school or housing provider.
Get ahead of the residence card, resident registration, bank account and health insurance — the order and documents you'll need.
Understand the student work permit (out-of-status activity), the 28-hour weekly cap and which jobs are allowed.
Your first 72 hours: must-have national apps, procedures in the right order, and a 3-step earthquake guide. Phone-bank-seal dependencies untangled here too.
Already landed, or about to be — the sooner you grasp how Japan actually works (residence card, registration, health insurance & pension, housing, part-time work, seeing a doctor), the easier life gets. This stage is mostly plain-content guides: first learn these things exist and the traps people fall into, then always go confirm with official sources.
A time-ordered, checkable procedure flow: COE/visa before arrival → 在留カード (residence card) at the airport → within 14 days 住民登録/国保/年金 (resident registration, health insurance, pension) → part-time work permit (28h) → renewal (all verify-official).
Dorms vs UR vs private rentals, deposit/key-money upfront costs, guarantors and renewal fees — a quick primer.
Compare three National Pension choices—pay now, apply for the student payment exception, or do nothing—alongside National Health Insurance reduction rates, lump-sum withdrawal, and residence-review risks. Amounts, income thresholds, and reductions change by year and municipality; verify official sources.
The whole line after deciding on grad school — the real process is to set the research direction first, then find a professor, not the other way around. Covers undergrad, research student, master's, and doctorate.
Professor matching · research-topic mapping · reach/match/safety school ladder
Start from a career vision or academic field, add your thesis, methods, and results, and compare up to three directions; choose one for the full report and method / university-professor leads.
Compare your direction, methods, and question with professors' recent papers, KAKEN grants, and research keywords, then return a tiered shortlist with fit rationale, sources, and manual checks.
Guidelines decoder: extracts dates, eligibility, documents and deadline type (must-arrive vs postmark) → 3-state eligibility self-check and per-document countdown → then files the school, doc to-dos and timeline together
From pasted text, a PDF, or an official URL, extract application windows, must-arrive vs postmark rules, document specifications, language requirements, exam subjects, and original-text restrictions. After confirmation, file the school, document tasks, and dates together.
Model samples → draft grounded in school × advisor → admissions-view feedback
Draft an SOP for your target school and advisor, then review it paragraph by paragraph from an admissions perspective and refine it for submission.
10-field samples → advisor-grounded drafting → Japanese-standard formatting → faculty-view review vs. literature
Produce a research plan aimed at your target advisor's line of work, then take it to submission quality — six research-plan stages run as one flow: reference samples, an advisor-grounded first draft, Japanese formatting, citation formatting, multi-dimensional review, and a sample review report.
Scenario email samples (first contact / nudge / decline / post-offer) + AI drafting · per-professor tracking (CRM)
Start with scenario samples for follow-ups, declines, and post-acceptance contact, plus formatting references. In the workbench, draft per advisor from public academic information and track sent, reply, follow-up, and closure states. The tool never sends email.
Entrance written exam (major subjects) · interview (subject-specific) prep
Check past-exam access status and any verified university instructions or official source by university and graduate school, then verify the degree level, selection type, and year.
Paste your research plan or statement to organize likely questions, difficulty levels and sensitive topics from an interviewer's perspective. You also receive a last-minute review sheet covering the flow, self-introduction, key strengths, questions to ask and day-of checks. Continue to a live mock interview when you are ready to practice.
The whole line from job-hunting in Japan to working and staying — from job-search goals and self-analysis, through ES, company research, and interviews, all the way to post-offer procedures and residence-status changes.
Identify your new-grad / mid-career track and turn the standard annual cycle into a first action
Build a solid self-analysis axis, organize your experiences into cards, then put your strengths into words
Use one focused question at a time and Why×3 to ground values, strength hypotheses, three job-search axes, and a self-PR in real experience, plus up to three STAR candidates for you to confirm.
Separate facts, actions, results, and gaps, then map the experience to the target role. Produce four versions from the same material: self-PR, a roughly 200-character ES, a one-minute answer, and a technical deep-dive—without inventing numbers.
First turn research, projects, internships, part-time work, and club activities into STAR experience cards, then reuse them for strengths, ES, interviews, and role matching.
Match industries you can enter and stay in, and turn job postings into context and apply-or-not decisions
First rule out paths that breach your non-negotiables on location, transfers, remote work, or overtime. Then map your strengths to realistic industry × role options, job realities, international-student cautions, and terms to verify in postings.
Understand a company in full: business model, businesses and customers, competitive comparison, financial stability, strategy and issues, and the role itself, with risks and mismatches stated alongside the strengths. Every fact is then turned into drafted answers to the seven interview questions and strong questions to ask back.
Résumé/ES/certificate templates plus form-parsing, profile-based single or bulk ES generation, fit analysis and pre-submit checks
Organize the documents Japanese job hunting may ask for at each stage: 履歴書 (Japanese-format resume), ES, transcript/graduation certificates, health check certificates, qualification proofs, portfolios, and international-student documents. What can be generated is generated; what cannot is explained with samples, issuing offices, reissue paths, and pitfalls.
Parse ES prompts, character limits, and question types, asking you to confirm ambiguous source lines first. Then draft from verified company facts, your job profile, and STAR cards, with source cards, length status, and gap questions shown per answer.
Master aptitude-test types and weak spots, then prep for every interview format one by one
Infer likely web-test types such as SPI, Tamatebako, CAB/GAB and TG-WEB from your target industry, role and company names, then prepare for the post-ES written gate.
Daily SPI-style non-verbal and verbal drills, all original questions. Three modes — understand in Chinese, side-by-side, Japanese-only — plus a wrongbook and weak-point analysis.
Interview prep and simulation for real selection: switch focus by round (1st / 2nd / final) and format (group & GD, case, recorded / web), producing an interview prep card and its likely Q&A for that company.
Craft business emails (OB visits, scheduling, declines) and handle post-offer steps and the work visa
Apply the etiquette and timing rules for six scenarios, including alumni visits, scheduling, and offer declines. Missing names, companies, and dates remain placeholders; the tool drafts but never sends.
Keep one account-owned file per company and role. Every confirmed selection change is appended as its own event, so later status never overwrites history.
Compare each offer on a "life-in-Japan axis"—contribution to 永住 (permanent residence) requirements, highly-skilled points, family accompaniment; then work through the 内々定 (unofficial offer) → オヤカク (parental confirmation) → accept/decline decision and back-plan the 留学 (student) → 技人国 (work status) change up to your start date.
