The Supreme Education Council (SEC)’s Higher Education Institute and the Japan embassy yesterday jointly announced the opening of the applications for Japanese scholarships to Qatari nationals who wish to study in Japan. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) scholarship applications will be received until June 9. The scholarships fall into two categories: a five-year undergraduate study, and a two-year postgraduate research study. Under the undergraduate scholarship, successful applicants will study in Japan for five years starting from April 2012 to March 2017, including the one year for study of the Japanese language. Applicants must be born between April 2, 1990 and April 1, 1995 and he/she must be interested in Japanese language. In the research student postgraduate scholarship category, students will study and research for two years in Japan from April 2012 to March 2014, including a six-month period of study of the Japanese language. Applicants for this category of scholarship must have been born on or after April 2, 1977. Explaining the selection process in a news conference yesterday, Japan embassy counsellor and mission deputy head Izuru Shimmura said candidates will be selected by the Joint Selection Committee comprised of officials from the SEC, Qatar University and Japan embassy through document screening, written examination and interview process. Names of selected candidates will be recommended to the MEXT of Japan for the final screening, he said. However, Shimmura said that the embassy will seek to ensure an increase in the number of Qatari students in Japan, in co-operation with the Japan School of Doha, established in 2009. He revealed that a new language centre – Qatar Eastern Language Centre – was also established in March as part of the efforts. Higher Education Institute (HEI) acting director Ahmed Ibrahim Hassan Ali said that only two Qatari students are presently studying under the MEXT scholarship in Japan. “Shaheen al-Ghanim – a financial analyst with RasGas and Hamad Saleh al-Nesef – an official at Kahramaa, were winners of the MEXT scholarship for 2010 and 2009 respectively. “They are currently undergoing two-year postgraduate courses on business administration, including a six-month Japanese language course, at Doshisha University in Japan,” he said. Two other students have studied under the MEXT scholarship: Abdullah Ziyara (1999-2001: Teacher Training at Graduate School of Education, Shiga University) and Abdulrahman al-Hajri (2001-2003: Research student at Graduate School of Education, Tokyo Gakugei University). Application forms for the scholarships are available at the Japan embassy. For more information, call 44840888, send a fax to 44832178, or visit

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