The office of the Institute for Japanese Language and Culture provides a wide range of support services for students from the time they apply to the time they complete the program. For example, we help candidates who are admitted to the program submit their applications for residence to the Immigration Bureau. We make arrangements to meet students who are arriving in Japan to begin their studies, we help them find a place to live, and we help them to complete their registration at City Hall.

We provide guidance to students if their attendance begins to lag during the semester, as well as advice about how students can apply for permission to engage in activities other than what is ordinarily allowed under their visa status at the start of the program. When it is time for students to advance to other academic programs, we provide advice on how they can renew their visas.

The office staff do their very best to support all the students in the program. They make an effort to find out how the students are doing outside of class, and they talk to students individually during breaks between classes, during the lunch break, or after classes are over for the day, to find out if life is going smoothly for the students or if they have any concerns. Most of the students are experiencing life outside of their home countries for the first time in their lives.

The first year of life as an international student is usually the hardest. The students are living in an unfamiliar foreign country, and they may be worried about how their studies are progressing or they may feel uneasy living in a culture that is different from their own.