Each new international student at Kagoshima University will be paired with a Japanese student tutor. Your tutor will be chosen by your academic advisor and will be hired by the university to assist you in the various entrance procedures, showing you around the area and generally helping you adjust to your new life in Kagoshima.

After meeting you tutor they will take your accommodation at Kagoshima University’s International Residence Hall also known as ‘kaikan’. There you will be met by the residence’s manager and the kaikan tutors, many of which are international students themselves and have already lived in Kagoshima for some time so can offer a lot of useful advice. They will show you to your room and assist you with the entrance procedure. Kaikan has 3 separate buildings and while each individual room is furnished, size and facilities of each are slightly different with rent ranging from 4,700 – 25,000 yen per month. Your placement within these buildings will be decided by the ISO before your arrival. Since the residence hall has a limited number of rooms, MEXT scholarship students may be admitted for only half a year and other students may be admitted for only 1 year. After this your tutor will take you for a tour around the local area, showing you shops, restaurants and other important places. Depending on the time of your arrival they may even take you to the University.


Building3


A student room in Bld.3

A few days after arriving your tutor will go with you to Kagoshima City Hall. Here you will firstly register as a residence of Kagoshima. If you already have a residence card your new address will simply be written on the back of your card. If you do not have a card you will register your address and the card will be mailed to you within a few working days. Next you will apply to enter Japan’s National Health Insurance. Legally every person living in Japan for more than 3 months must enter this national system. The charge will be around 1,500 yen per month and after applying you will receive a health card which is accepted by almost all Japanese hospitals, clinics and dental surgeries and cover 70% of the cost of care meaning you will only pay the remaining 30%. While you are at city hall make sure that your tutor and you visit the pension department and fill out the forms indicating that you are a student and do not wish to enter the system. Sometimes even after doing this you will receive bills for the pension scheme, if this happens to you please bring it to the ISD office.

After sorting out all your official documents at city hall your tutor will bring you to the university campus to meet your academic advisor and visit the ISD. During this time you will receive information about orientation, placement tests and what classes you can take. Please discuss these with your advisor since they may have specific classes that they want you to join. At this time you will also register with your faculty here and receive a student card which is required for such things as bank accounts and phone contracts. You will also tour the campus and facilities to better get you settled into your exciting new life here in Kagoshima University!!