How to Get Into the University of Tokyo (Todai)

If you are reading this and thinking, “I’ll sit the EJU in Japanese in February 2027” — pause for a moment. For the vast majority of international candidates, the only realistic route into the University of Tokyo does not run through Japanese. It runs through PEAK (Programs in English at Komaba) — an English-taught bachelor’s degree you apply to much as you would an American liberal arts college: SAT/ACT, TOEFL, essays, recommendations, a deadline in December. That is the starting point of this guide and one of the two parallel admissions routes at Todai that you must never confuse with each other.

The second route — the General Examination — is the classic Japanese admissions process, the filter through which Todai selects 90% of its students. Two exams: the EJU (Examination for Japanese University Admission, run by JASSO) in June or November, and Todai’s 2nd stage examination in February/March. Everything in Japanese, with JLPT N1 required in practice. The route is theoretically open to everyone, but in practice only accessible after two or three years of intensive language study. For an international applicant who did not finish high school with an N2/N1 certificate, this is a plan spread across many years, not a single admissions cycle.

This article breaks both routes down into their component parts, adds GLP (Global Leadership Program) as an overlay for students who are already admitted, and covers the MEXT scholarship as a third, less obvious channel — where the selection exam is sat at a Japanese embassy in your home country, and the scholarship covers the entire cost. If you want the wider view of the university, head to the pillar guide to Todai. If you are comparing Todai with other top Japanese universities, read Kyoto University (Kyodai) and Osaka University as well.

What is PEAK, and why is it the route for most international students?

PEAK stands for Programs in English at Komaba — a four-year bachelor’s degree offered by the College of Arts and Sciences on the Komaba campus (in the western part of Tokyo). It was launched in 2012 as Todai’s answer to the global push to internationalise higher education, and the university’s first-ever English-taught undergraduate programme. You study in an international cohort (~30 students per year), with faculty teaching in English, following a liberal arts model: the first two years are a shared core (Junior Division) and the following two are specialisation (Senior Division) on one of two tracks.

The two PEAK tracks are the International Program on Japan in East Asia (humanities and social sciences — regional history, politics, culture, the economics of East Asia) and the International Program on Environmental Sciences (earth sciences, ecology, climate, sustainable development). The first suits a candidate interested in Asia, diplomacy, international journalism or think tanks. The second is for those with a STEM bent who want to work at the intersection of science and climate policy.

PEAK selection resembles American holistic admissions: you submit your school transcript (a standard secondary diploma is enough), an SAT or ACT score (1400+ preferred, though not always formally required), a TOEFL iBT of at least 80 or IELTS of at least 6.5, two essays (one on your motivation to study in Japan, the other a thematic prompt for your chosen track), and a recommendation letter from a teacher. The strongest candidates are invited to an online interview (~30 minutes, two Komaba professors). The decision comes at the end of January.

The numbers? Todai does not officially publish PEAK statistics, but based on Komaba communications and historical data, an estimated 100–150 people apply each year and around 30 are admitted — giving an acceptance rate in the region of 25–30%. That is far higher than the top American universities (Harvard ~3%, Stanford ~4%), but lower than most public universities in continental Europe (TU Delft ~70%). Candidates from outside East Asia on PEAK have historically been rare — not because of an admissions barrier, but because Japan as a study destination is still a niche choice in most school systems.

How does the General Examination work, and when does it make sense?

The General Examination is the standard Japanese admissions process that 90% of Todai students go through — including the vast majority of international students from China, Korea and Taiwan. The route sounds simple: pass the EJU, pass the 2nd stage examination, you have a place. In practice, each of those stages is a hard filter.

The EJU (Examination for Japanese University Admission) is administered by JASSO (Japan Student Services Organization) and sat twice a year — in June and November — in 18 cities across Japan and a smaller set of overseas locations, all of them in Asia (India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam). For candidates anywhere outside Asia, that means travelling to one of those centres or sitting the test in Japan itself — a logistical hurdle in its own right. Four sections: Japanese as a Foreign Language (~125 min), mathematics (Course 1 for humanities / Course 2 for science, 80 min), science (physics/chemistry/biology, 80 min) or Japan and the World (geography, history, economics, 80 min) — depending on your programme. Everything is in Japanese apart from the English-language version of the mathematics and science papers (although Todai requires the Japanese version for most programmes).

The 2nd stage examination is Todai’s internal, two-day exam, sat in February/March on the Komaba or Hongo campus. For the science track (engineering, medicine, the hard sciences): mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, Japanese and English. For the humanities track: mathematics, Japanese, geography/history and a foreign language. EJU and 2nd stage points are combined according to a weighting that depends on the faculty — in medicine the 2nd stage carries 70%, in literature 50%.

For an international candidate, the realistic General Examination route requires: two to three years of Japanese study (zero to N1 averages around 2,200 hours according to the Japan Foundation), time in Japan at a language school or a semester at a Japanese high school, EJU preparation (cram-school juku courses in Tokyo, online programmes such as Tofugu or Tokyo Academics), and solid mathematics at Japanese upper-secondary level (which is often more intensive than advanced-level school exams elsewhere). This is a multi-year plan, most often delivered via a gap year in Japan. It only makes sense if you are 100% certain you want to study in Japanese — for example, for programmes PEAK does not cover (medicine, law, mechanical engineering).

What is GLP — the Global Leadership Program — and how do you earn it?

GLP (Global Leadership Program), also known as GEfIL (Global Education for Innovation and Leadership), is not a separate admissions route at Todai. It is a two-year programme overlay for students who are already admitted — launched in the third and fourth years of an undergraduate degree. The internal application happens in the second year, and around 30–40 people per year join out of a year-group of roughly 3,000 students.

What do you get from GLP? First: additional English-taught seminars — interdisciplinary, led by leading Todai professors and visiting scholars from Harvard, Yale and Cambridge. Second: an internship programme (Japanese government agencies, corporations like Mitsubishi or Sony, international organisations — the UN, the World Bank). Third: funding for study-abroad exchanges. Fourth: the GEfIL certificate attached to your degree — an official distinction on your final transcript.

GLP selection takes place in March of the second year: an application, essays (in English) and an interview with a faculty committee. The criteria: academic results (first-year GPA), English proficiency (TOEFL 100+ or native-level required in practice) and a clear idea for your own global path. PEAK students are overrepresented in GLP — because English comes built in — but they have no automatic entry. For an international candidate, GLP is an especially attractive add-on, because it raises the recognisability of the degree outside Japan — where a Todai degree on its own is sometimes confused with less prestigious Asian universities.

How do you apply for the MEXT scholarship from abroad?

MEXT (Monbukagakusho — Japan’s Ministry of Education) is the flagship Japanese government scholarship, distributed through embassies. You apply through the Japanese embassy in your home country. There are three main tracks for international students: Undergraduate (for high-school students and recent leavers), Research (for graduates aiming at an MSc/PhD at Todai) and Specialized Training College (vocational programmes — chosen less often).

What does MEXT cover? Tuition (full — the JPY 535,800/year disappears), a return flight (your home country to Tokyo), a living stipend of JPY 117,000/month (~USD 780, ~EUR 670, ~GBP 585), and basic health insurance. In practice that means a Todai degree on MEXT is free for the student, and the living stipend fully covers a modest budget in Tokyo (Komaba/Mitaka dormitory, meals in the university canteen, travel on the Yamanote Line). MEXT students do, however, have to complete a preparatory year of Japanese first (at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies or Osaka University), unless they already hold a confirmed N1 — which extends the degree from 4 to 5 years.

The MEXT 2026 application calendar: the intake is announced in May 2026, documents are due by the end of June 2026, the written exam (mathematics, sciences or humanities, Japanese, English) is in early July at the embassy, the interview is in late July, the embassy’s nomination is in August, MEXT’s decision in Tokyo is in December, and studies begin in April 2027 (with the preparatory Japanese year) or October 2027. The number of places: each embassy nominates only a handful of candidates per year across all tracks — selection is narrow, but years of statistics show that candidates with strong advanced-level results (mathematics plus two subject sciences) and even N3-level Japanese have a genuine chance.

What are the language requirements — English, Japanese, your mother tongue?

For PEAK, the language requirements are unambiguous: TOEFL iBT min. 80 or IELTS min. 6.5 (Academic). Native English speakers are exempt from the test, but an international candidate — even from a bilingual high school — must submit a score. There is no Japanese requirement for PEAK (although Todai offers free Japanese courses to PEAK students from the first year — most take them). A national English-language certificate (FCE/CAE, or an advanced-level English school exam) does not replace TOEFL/IELTS.

For the General Examination, the Japanese level is never formally written down as “JLPT N1”, but it is the de facto required threshold, because the entire degree (lectures, textbooks, written work, exams) is delivered in Japanese. A typical international General Examination student holds N1 before applying, or completes it in the first preparatory year. The EJU measures Japanese separately (the Japanese as a Foreign Language section), and Todai expects a score of 300+ out of 400 for candidates targeting top programmes (medicine, law, economics).

Your mother tongue has no bearing on Todai admissions — the university does not differentiate international students by country of origin. All documents (diploma, transcript) must be translated by a sworn/certified translator into English (for PEAK) or Japanese (for the General Examination). Translations carrying an English apostille are accepted by Todai without additional consular verification.

What are an international candidate’s real chances at Todai?

Brutally honest: PEAK is a real option, the General Examination is a 3+ year plan, and MEXT is a lottery with positive expected value.

On PEAK, an international candidate with a strong academic profile (advanced-level results across four subjects averaging 90%+, an SAT of 1450+ or IB 38+, TOEFL 100+, and an authentic essay on the motivation to study in Japan) has odds in the region of 30–40% — above the average applicant pool, because Western European and other non-East-Asian candidates are rare in it, and the PEAK committee actively seeks geographic diversity. The weakest profiles (results around 70%, no SAT, motivation along the lines of “Japan is cool”) fall at the first document-screening hurdle.

On the General Examination, an international candidate with no prior Japanese has essentially no chance in the 2026/27 cycle — it is a plan for 2027/28 or 2028/29, after a preparatory year in Tokyo (e.g. ISI Language School, Naganuma School). With Japanese at N2 and an EJU score of ~280/400, the odds are moderate; with N1 and 320+, they are high for most programmes apart from medicine.

MEXT undergraduate for international applicants: of roughly 30–50 applications per year to a typical embassy, around 3–5 undergraduate scholarships are awarded, plus a similar number of research ones. The deciding factors are the written-exam results (mathematics and the sciences are especially heavily weighted for the science track) and the interview — the embassy looks for people with a research plan (research track) or an authentic interest in Japan (undergraduate), not a generic “I want to see Asia”. Candidates who have placed in international subject olympiads (the International Mathematical Olympiad, the International Physics Olympiad) or their national equivalents have historically had the highest acceptance rate.

The value of a Todai degree internationally: lower than Oxford or ETH Zurich, but higher than most non-Anglophone public universities in continental Europe. For employers in the technology sector — Japanese multinationals such as Toyota, Sony and Honda, with operations across the globe — a Todai degree is an immediate signal of competence. For academia, Todai is globally recognised (QS #28), and a graduate has a genuine shot at a PhD in the US or Europe.

Which documents do you need to prepare, and in what order?

Whatever route you take, the minimum Todai application file is: your secondary-school leaving diploma with an apostille, a high-school transcript (3 years), a copy of your passport, a recommendation letter (1 for PEAK, 0–1 for the General Examination — Todai weights exams more heavily than recommendations) and a passport photo.

For PEAK add: an SAT or ACT score report (SAT 1400+ preferred, with particular emphasis on the Math section for the Environmental Sciences track), a TOEFL iBT or IELTS Academic (the official score report sent directly to Todai from ETS or the British Council), two essays (600–800 words each — prompt 1: Why Tokyo; prompt 2: one of the prompts set by the faculty) and a short writing sample or research proposal (optional for Environmental Sciences). The application is submitted online through the Todai PEAK portal, with a fee of around JPY 17,000 (~USD 115).

For the General Examination add: your EJU result (Todai pulls it directly from JASSO, so you do not submit paper), your JLPT result (N1 recommended, though formally recorded as “sufficient for study”), proof of residence in Japan (if you are applying on a visa-track from a Japanese language school) and the 2nd stage examination selection form. Some faculties (medicine, law, agriculture) require additional documents — check the page for the specific faculty.

For MEXT the list is the longest: all Todai documents plus the embassy’s application form, a medical certificate on the embassy’s own forms (an examination with a GP/family doctor), several passport photos, a copy of your diploma (if already issued — otherwise a school certificate stating the expected graduation date), a CV in English and a study plan (300–500 words in English — what you want to study and why). All documents are submitted in person or by courier to the embassy.

Check your own grades against the Japanese requirements — in our GPA calculator you can convert your national grading scale (or percentage-based advanced-level results) into the 4.0 GPA used in communication with Todai. Most international PEAK candidates land in the 3.5–4.0/4.0 GPA band — a competitive threshold.

Sources

This article is based on the official documents of The University of Tokyo (u-tokyo.ac.jp/admissions, the PEAK and Undergraduate sections), the EJU regulations from JASSO, MEXT admissions documentation from the Japanese government scholarship programme, and public communications from the College of Arts and Sciences at Komaba. All data on tuition, fees and deadlines refer to the 2026/27 cycle and may change — always verify the current version at u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/prospective-students before submitting an application. The JPY-USD rate is taken at ~150 JPY per USD (April 2026 average); the real rate on the day of payment may deviate by 5–10%, and EUR/GBP equivalents shift accordingly. For the full source list, see the sources frontmatter above.