pluftern

Haha moochie the sample size each year is relatively small and the results page is based entirely on voluntary posting of peoples results. So its hard to compare year to year what's the normal for people getting off the waitlist. I personally didn't apply to a specific branch, and my field (chemistry) gets funding from all branches.

Note that whisky is referring to people who actually completed a terminal masters program--not master out of a PhD program. Its difficult to pull off transferring between PhD programs in the same field of study because departments don't like to create ill will.

you need to do more of your own research--especially because Americans generally are not familiar with the Japanese university system. You can Google everything nowadays. By simply going to the University of Tokyo webpage (which, remarkably, is by default in English), and clicking on a tab that says "Degree Programs in English", one can find this: http://dir.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ICE/course/course10.html http://www.chem.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/academic/ http://www.chem.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/academic/ir-student.html http://www.chem.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/academic/doctor.html So English-language postgraduate degrees are available in chemistry at Tokyo. You should look up to see if courses are taught in English or Japanese though. Also consider, of course, that even though a course is taught in English, the English might not necessarily be fluent. Note that the East Asian methods of teaching are entirely different from those of the West. Much more discipline, focus, and book-studying is required. Most younger middle/upper class East Asians can speak some English. However, you obviously would need to learn to read and speak Japanese to a certain degree of fluency to survive in Japan for a long term academic stay. The university will have more English fluency, but Tokyo itself still has most of its signs, etc. in Japanese. And Japanese civilian English is not known to be all that great. So if you really are set on doing a graduate degree in Japan, I would sit down for a good few hours and search around the Internet. As I just demonstrated above, you can pretty much just go to the university website, browse a bit, and land on the information you want.