Important Info for Overseas Applicants

If you are applying to GenkiJACS from overseas (i.e. outside Japan), there are some important points that you should keep in mind:

1. Visa

As we are a short-term language study school, GenkiJACS does not provide student visas. A visa waiver (automatically received for nationalities of many countries) or tourist visa is sufficient to enter the country and study with us for up to 3 months. Please note that a tourist visa will not allow you to work in Japan.
It is the applicant's responsibility to apply for and receive the required visa. More information on visas is here.

 

2. Money

Japan is still largely a cash-based society. Many smaller shops and even a few of the larger ones in Japan do not accept credit cards. In addition, bank checks are not used or accepted, and only specified ATMs allow withdrawals from a foreign account.
Travellers checks are a safe option. However, even these are only accepted at the largest department stores. If you are worried about theft, one good option is to convert your money to travellers checks in your home country, and then exchange them for yen at a bank in Japan as needed. Of course, doing so means you will pay bank fees twice, once for each conversion.

 

3. Payment Methods

We will send you information on methods of payment when we send your estimate (after receiving your application). The four main methods of payment for applicants from overseas are domestic bank transfer (outside Japan: Unipay; inside Japan: furikomi), international bank transfer, credit card and postal money order.

1) Domestic bank transfer
Uni-pay is a payment system designed for language students, that allows you to make a local bank payment in your own country, greatly reducing the transfer fees compared to international bank transfers. Exchange rates are based on HSBC's rates. We recommend this service in most cases. There is a 1015 yen/$10 service charge. To pay using Uni-Pay, visit the UniPay site, register to pay with them, then make a transfer to the bank account details you are shown.
For people living in Japan, a "furikomi" (bank transfer) costs about 300 yen.

2) International bank transfer
You can transfer funds directly from bank to bank. In this case, bank transfer fees are usually levied in both the source and destination countries, with the total varying, but often around 4000-6500 yen. It generally takes funds about 3-5 days to arrive. Remember to specify that you want to pay transaction fees separately from the sum total to transfer.

3) Credit card
Payment can be made through the Internet by credit card, using the services of Paypal, with a 3.4% service fee added. This is the fastest payment method, but the fee can become quite large for large transfers. If the transfer is more than about 150,000 yen, an international bank transfer will probably be cheaper.

4) International postal order
An international postal order/money order can be purchased and sent to us by registered mail for cashing, in countries that support this method. The fee is generally very small, but it can take up to two weeks to arrive.

Note that all payments must be made in Japanese yen.