How to Apply for the MEXT Scholarship by Travis Senzaki

With over 7 years of experience processing MEXT scholarship applications and coaching hundreds of applicants through the process, Travis Senzaki is a prominent independent expert on the MEXT scholarship. Travis knows firsthand the life-changing impact of studying abroad in Japan as a former foreign student. Since then, he's made it his mission to ensure that as many kids as possible benefit from international education. Travis was born in the United States and had lived his entire childhood in a very homogeneous tiny town on the east coast, until he left for a year in Japan. He was a voracious reader as a child, which kindled his passion for adventure, so when the opportunity to study abroad arose, he leaped at it, spending a year in Japan in high school.

Despite knowing little to nothing about Japan or its language when he arrived, the year had a profound impact on him. He had developed a fascination for the culture, town, and history he had experienced living in a rural community in Shiga, Japan, by the time he returned home. As he made every effort to return, his love grew into an undergraduate and master's degree in Japanese History and Japan Studies. During his master's program, he met and fell in love with a Japanese classmate along the road.

Travis soon found work recruiting international students at a Japanese university after they married and returned to Japan in 2011. As a university employee, he has continued to engage with overseas students and to expand his knowledge of the MEXT scholarship and other opportunities for international students to live in Japan. He continues on work with exchange students and publish guides to living in Japan, as well as epic fantasy, from his home in Akita with his wife and three children.