On Thursday, the Charge d’affaires at the Japanese Embassy in Malawi, Mr Hiroshi Matsumoto, announced that with effect from next year, the government of Japan will be offering research scholarships to two Malawian scholars.
Currently, they offer only one research scholarship and I happen to be the 2008 recipient. Chomora Mikeka of Yokohama National University and Felix Kamala of Kyushu University received this scholarship in 2006 and 2007 respectively. The addition of one more research scholarship is a very good development.
According to the Daily Times, Mr Matsumoto also announced that Japan will also be offering scholarships to undergraduate and technology students. The Daily Times article does not disclose the number of scholarships offered to be Malawian students in the latter category.
Those of you who frequent this blog might recall that some few months ago, I blogged about the the opening of the Japanese Embassy in Malawi. In that post, I pointed out that I was expecting the Japanese government to increase the number of scholarships offered to Malawian students with the opening of the Embassy in Malawi. Now that this has come to pass, I am very excited. Besides that, the increased number of scholarships to Malawian students implies that there will be an increase in the number of Malawians here in Japan and it will be fun to be in touch with more people from home. In my Japanese language class of less than 20 students, there are 4 guys from Indonesia. These guys have huge fun amongst themselves.
Malawian students who are interested in applying for the Japanese government scholarships must contact their Embassy in Lilongwe. You must also take a look at the Study in Japan site. This site provides comprehensive information regarding studying in Japan. Wishing you all the best 
Related posts:
28 users commented in " Japan to offer more scholarships to Malawian students "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a Trackbackthis is great news….checking out the study in Japan site as well….might prove useful for me
[Reply]
Great for the people of Malawi. Hope the people will make the most of the opportunity to further their studies.
[Reply]
One of my dreams is to learn at Japan
[Reply]
@Jamaipanese: Great to see you here. Initially, I thought that you are based here in Japan, only to learn from your blog that you are a huge fan of Japan but you have not yet been to Japan.
You can check with the Japanese Embassy in Jamaica about these scholarships.
[Reply]
Welcome to Japan! Hope you’re enjoying everything so far. Good luck with the Japanese studies.
[Reply]
I am so glad i found your blog. It was one of those things where I found you from somewhere else type of deal. Anyways, would you mind if sometime you placed an article on my site so that people visiting my site will see what i am reading here? I know that i enjoyed some of the stuff here and I know that if my visitors read it they might just want to read it as well. thanks for doing such a great job with it and I plan to visit often.
[Reply]
great news.but you should offer to some other students more places because i am really interested to study there but i dont have the oportunity
[Reply]
@Sebastian:Spot on! This is a good development for Malawi.
@Warhammer:You can learn japanese even without coming to Japan by interacting with some Japanese people that are staying in your country. Most of them will have problems with English. So you can help them learn English as they help you learn Japanese.Win-Win scenario!
@Billywest: Arigatoo ogozamaisu.I am having a great time. Nihongo lessons are progressing well. I have now mastered Katakana and Hiragana characters. I now have to start Kanji as I master the Grammar.
[Reply]
@jorge:I will not have any problems if you can copy some of my articles and place them on your site but you must always put a link to the original source.
@Anna Heygi: Please check with the Japanese Embassy in your country if they offer any scholarships to your country.
[Reply]
It’s great! I wish to be in your boots
Japan is wonderful country! Good luck!
[Reply]
we will greatly appriciate to the offer of scholarship to malawians . this will improve development
[Reply]
This is good development since some of us really look forward to these opportunities to enhance our education & in turn develop malawi.
[Reply]
Congrats on your scholarship, I hope you like it over in Japan. I had a few friends who use to live over there because their parents were in the military and they told me it was pretty awesome. I wish I could go over there someday. Anyways, thanks for the links to the websites I am a undergrad at the moment and now I might have a new school to think about attending = ].
[Reply]
@Hannah Montana:You can apply for these scholarships through the Japanese Embassy in your country.
@Larry: Get in touch with the Japanese Embassy in Lilongwe.They will advise you the schedule for the next scholarship cycle.
@Money Calculator: Thanks for the compliment. You can always apply for the Japanese government scholarship after you finish your undergrad studies
[Reply]
I think the world now is finally realizing, as part of this economic crisis, that we cannot have such boundaries as “Developing Nations” and all of that, for so long the potential of countries such as Malawi and many others has been wasted because other countries will not lend a helping hand.
Good on Japan!
Shibuya´s last blog post..Shibuya Sightseeing- Getting to Shibuya
[Reply]
This is great!! something I need at this point in time.. Could you please send me the link to download the aplication form…
[Reply]
Clement Nyirenda says:
May 6th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
@Florence: You may wish to take a look at this post. Also make sure that you contact the Japanese Embassy in Lilongwe for further guidance.
[Reply]
Excuse Mr. Clement,have the 2010 scholars from Malawi been selected yet?
[Reply]
Clement Nyirenda says:
September 9th, 2009 at 10:34 am
Yes 4 or 5 Malawians were selected preliminarily by the Japanese Embassy in Malawi. They will have to be confirmed by the Ministry of Education in Japan towards the end of the year. So far, I know only two people who are on list.
[Reply]
Thanks for the reply Clement,but i was so interested to know about how they assessment of the selections go and what are the names of these two Malawians?
[Reply]
Clement Nyirenda says:
September 19th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
It is difficult to know how they carry out their assessments. All I know is that sometime in April/May, they advertize these scholarships. Shortlisted candidates go to Lilongwe to sit for English and Japanese tests. The latter is optional. Those who do well are invited for interviews from which they select the final list. This list has to approved by the Ministry of Education in Tokyo.
I know two successful applicants, but I cannot disclose their names right now because they have not yet received their approval letters from Japan.
[Reply]
to clement…Really wanted to know if the scholarships are there again next year. Do we need to wait for the advert again in the news or its statically they will be there for the years to come? What about japanesse tests,how would a mere malawian like me have an idea on what to write and furthermore can you clarify on what you mean that it is optional?
[Reply]
Clement Nyirenda says:
December 15th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Yes, they will be there again next year. The application window opens sometime in May. But you have to contact the Japanese Embassy in Lilongwe in order to get a clear picture.You can take a look at previous tests at http://www.studyjapan.go.jp/en/toj/toj0308e.html#2. Only the Japanese language test is optional as they do not necessarily expect you to be good at Japanese, especially when you are coming here on Sciences.
[Reply]
Mwai says:
December 15th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Thanks for the link clement. But was wondering,the selection,how competitive is it?It seems it is limited to a few people. From one of the comment replies you said less ten students are selected. Is this how they placed their strategy?
[Reply]
Clement Nyirenda says:
December 15th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
As you already know, competition for scholarships is always severe. In my time, the Japanese picked only one applicant and by God’s grace that had to be me. When applying for the scholarship, I knew that it was going to be difficult. But I gave it a try. You should also be guided by the same principle.
Recently, the number of recipients has increased to somewhere around 4 or 5. So you have a better chance to make it than before.
[Reply]
wow..ok. so its mostly post graduate students having the chance right? I remember a friend of mine went through the interviews and he concluded that most where already in college and less undergraduates. And is that it will target malawian nationals only?
[Reply]
Clement Nyirenda says:
December 15th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
Both postgrads and undergrads can apply for these scholarships. I am sure both groups have equal chances. The target is Malawian nationals. If you are not a Malawian national, you may wish to find out from the Japanese Embassy in your home country about these scholarships.
[Reply]
Hw I wish i had the chance to further my studies in Japan. I still look forward to it.
[Reply]
I would really appreciate if you could use your name when commenting.Using just keywords makes your comment seem spammy, and it's liable to get deleted.Please read my comment policy for more details.Many thanks for your cooperation!
Got an opinion? Leave a civil reply.