If you’re sure you want to stay in Japan after your post-grad studies, then aspire to be a fluent Japanese speaker by graduation day if you’re not already. I’ll touch on this in the succeeding paragraph but I thought to get this out as early as possible in this write-up to emphasize how important language is in the job hunt. But for people like me who don’t feel strongly about staying in Japan after graduation or for those who aren’t sure about what they want to do yet, then this blogpost offers that perspective.

Clarification: This blogpost is written in the perspective of a Filipino YLP scholar studying in Japan in 2020 when COVID-19 restrictions and preparations for the Tokyo Olympics 2020 was at its peak. The situation of the area around TIEC might have changed since then but this hopefully can give new scholars an idea of what to expect.

Tokyo International Exchange Center (TIEC) or “tee-yek“, as the dorm residents lovingly call it, is home to many international students in Tokyo. The compound is government-funded and is located in Odaiba. As a MEXT-YLP scholar in the Business track, you have the option to either look for your own housing or choose to stay at TIEC where the rent is subsidized and the environment is relatively foreigner-friendly.

Clarification: While this blogpost was written during the COVID-19 crisis and mentions the anomalies in the process we experienced, the intent of the blogpost is to cover the base steps that I believe is consistent regardless of economic conditions. Hopefully, my batch is the edge case and future scholars can enjoy this experience more fully in the future.

I’m probably one of the lucky few who received some good news after the COVID-19 crisis hit last March 2020 when I received my acceptance e-mail into the Hitotsubashi ICS MBA program as a fully-funded scholar through MEXT-YLP.