Two of Asia’s most developed economies have taken opposite approaches to outbound study, and understanding why explains a lot about how each country’s scholarships actually work. Japan’s outbound student numbers fell sharply, and its government responded by building a program specifically designed to reverse that trend. Korea, meanwhile, just expanded a major bilateral initiative aimed at sending more Korean STEM talent to the US than ever before. Neither story looks like the standard “here’s a list of scholarships” guide, so this one doesn’t either.
Japan’s Problem, and Tobitate’s Answer
Japanese outbound student numbers dropped sharply, accelerated further by the pandemic, and the Japanese government treated this as a genuine policy concern rather than a side issue. Its response is Tobitate one of the key scholarships in Japan for study abroad, formerly known as the Tobitate! Young Ambassador Program. Now in its second phase running from 2023 through 2027 under the name Next Tobitate Initiative, its explicit goal is to bring outbound numbers back to pre-pandemic levels.
What makes Tobitate different from a typical government scholarship: it’s partly funded by corporate donations rather than the government budget alone, with a targeted fundraising goal of around JPY 100 million (roughly GBP 550,000) from Japanese corporate partners, reflecting a genuine public-private push to get Japanese students studying abroad again.
What it covers: up to one year of financial support, split across two tracks, one for high school students and one for university students. Recent cycles targeted supporting around 4,000 high school students and 5,000 university students combined.
Eligibility: open to Japanese nationals at the high school or university level, with applications typically opening in December and closing in January or February depending on your track.
Fulbright Japan runs alongside Tobitate as a separate, longer-established route specifically for US-bound Japanese students pursuing graduate study, research, or professional development, funded jointly by the US and Japanese governments.
Korea’s Different Bet: Go Bigger on STEM, Not Broader on Everyone
Korea hasn’t built an equivalent broad-based “bring our students back” campaign, because the numbers didn’t call for one in the same way. Instead, Korea’s biggest recent move has been narrowing focus and raising stakes on a specific strategic priority: STEM talent headed to the United States.
The U.S.-Korea Presidential STEM Initiative, announced in April 2023 to mark the 70th anniversary of the US-Korea alliance, committed $60 million in joint funding aimed at serving 2,023 Koreans and 2,023 Americans, a number chosen deliberately to match the anniversary. Within this initiative, Fulbright Korea now runs 200 STEM-specific grantee slots, the largest STEM cohort in Fulbright’s entire global history.
What this signals: rather than spreading funding thin across every field, Korea concentrated new money on the fields it considers most strategically important, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics specifically, delivered through an already-trusted binational institution rather than a new standalone program.
Beyond Fulbright, Korea also runs its own outbound government scholarship, the Korean Government Scholarship Program for Study Overseas (KGSPSO), administered by the National Institute for International Education. This sits alongside Korea’s much better-known inbound Global Korea Scholarship, and it’s easy to confuse the two if you’re not paying attention to direction. KGSPSO funds Korean citizens studying abroad; GKS funds foreign students studying in Korea. If you’re researching this as a Korean applicant, make sure you’re looking at KGSPSO specifically, not GKS.
What This Means Practically, Depending on Your Field
If you’re Japanese and not in STEM specifically, Tobitate is genuinely built for you, since it doesn’t restrict by field the way Korea’s newest initiative does.
If you’re Korean and in STEM, the Fulbright Korea STEM Initiative slots represent real, recently expanded opportunity specifically for you, more so than for Korean applicants in other fields where the standard Fulbright Korea process still applies without the same recent funding boost.
Either way, university-level aid remains available independent of home-government funding. A Japanese or Korean applicant to Harvard, Oxford, or Cambridge competes for the same need-based and merit-based aid covered in our guide to Harvard’s need-based aid, and in our drafted guide to Clarendon and Gates Cambridge, regardless of which national program you also apply through.
Side by Side
| Japan (Tobitate) | Korea (Fulbright STEM Initiative + KGSPSO) | |
| Underlying goal | Reverse a decline in outbound numbers | Deepen strategic STEM talent pipeline to the US |
| Field restriction | None | STEM-focused for the newest initiative; KGSPSO is broader |
| Funding source | Government plus corporate donations | Joint US-Korea government funding, plus Korea’s own budget for KGSPSO |
| Best fit | Any Japanese student, any field | Korean STEM applicants specifically, for the newest slots |
A Few Quick Questions
Is Tobitate open to any field of study?
Yes, it doesn’t restrict by field the way Korea’s newest STEM-specific initiative does. It splits by student level (high school vs. university) rather than by subject.
What’s the difference between GKS and KGSPSO for Korean applicants?
GKS funds foreign students studying in Korea. KGSPSO funds Korean citizens studying abroad. If you’re a Korean student looking to go overseas, KGSPSO is the relevant program, not GKS.
Why did Korea focus new funding specifically on STEM?
The U.S.-Korea Presidential STEM Initiative was announced alongside the 70th anniversary of the US-Korea alliance in 2023, reflecting a strategic bilateral priority rather than a general outbound-education push like Japan’s Tobitate.
Can I combine Tobitate or KGSPSO with a university’s own financial aid?
In most cases yes, since these are separate funding sources from university-level aid. Confirm with your specific target university how multiple funding sources interact with their own award calculations.
Is Japan’s outbound number decline still a current issue?
The Next Tobitate Initiative explicitly runs through 2027 with the stated goal of returning to pre-pandemic outbound levels, so as of this writing, it remains an active policy priority rather than a resolved issue.
