- Write 8-12 experience cards
- Choose 2 primary industries and 1 backup
Your route and target intake set the month anchors for applications, exams, and documents on the standard timeline.
The page lays out customary months and their order from published practice; it is a reference view and is not rewritten by your own progress.
Work back from application windows and exam dates, and mark the waiting time for items other people issue: transcripts, references, notarised translations.
The standard view is only customary practice and requirements change every year; verify this year's guidelines, then save confirmed dates to your personal timeline.
Apr 2025 to Apr 2027
See the full route guideJob hunting in JapanThe window end is anchored to your target. Push the target later and the whole window slides later. Lines run concurrently and overlap — you don't finish one before starting the next.
These are focus periods, not exclusive stages — several lines still run at once inside each. Expand one to see the tracks running concurrently.
Easy trap in this periodDon't treat this as a single-task period — several lines (exams, applications, outreach, paperwork) often run together in the same window; missing the parallel lines is the most common mistake.
Timelines work backward: intake → application window → exams and papers. Forward planning comforts; backward planning warns you what is already late.
Pin the application window and exam dates first, then count steps from today.
JLPT and EJU run twice a year; miss one and the plan slides six months. Seats sell out too.
Transcripts, recommendations, notarized translations wait on other people — three weeks each.
Language prep, papers, and outreach usually run at once; never treat a period as one task.
The standard line is reference; confirmed deadlines are yours — save them to your personal timeline.
This is the official reference for common paths; each school's window follows that year's guidelines.