The life of an MBA student tends to revolve around a routine, no matter which country you are studying in. However, being a student in a country different from where you were born and raised can bring you a wealth of knowledge beyond the classroom.

Like any other graduate school program, the application process can be long and would require some self-reflection. When we apply for programs overseas, there is an added layer of questions to answer as an aspiring international student. In this guide, we will explain the MBA application process in Japan and the best way to approach your future academic goals. Whether you’re fresh out of undergrad, already working, or a non-traditional student, we have you covered.

Although our MBA program is fully conducted in English, many international students have significantly improved their Japanese by graduation.
How do they do it? 

In this Byline ICS, we had a chance to hear from Pun, who studies her Japanese at Hitotsubashi ICS and a Japanese language school outside of the campus. 

Pun(Punyavadee Yiengsubhanond)
Pun is a second-year student at Hitotsubashi ICS from Thailand under the MEXT scholarship
program.
Before joining Hitotsubashi ICS, she worked in the auditing and accounting field at PwC and Agoda.
She is in the middle of exploring many challenges to expand her experience and learn more about
herself.

Almost 80% of the students come from outside of Japan and a majority of the students are willing to pursue a career in Japan after graduation. Although our MBA program is fully conducted in English, many international students have significantly improved their Japanese by graduation. How do they do it?

 In this article, we asked three current students who are in their first year of the program, Kin, Viola, and Yiwei, about their experiences of learning Japanese.

Doing an MBA in a foreign country is an exciting challenge. We receive many questions from candidates who have families to bring to enjoy this new challenge together. The answer is, Yes, of course! In this Byline ICS, we introduce Chinmay Acharya’s story, who brought his family from India during his MBA.

In this second part of our interview with Professor Asuka Takaoka, we discuss her doctoral thesis research, how she balanced her DBA studies, work, personal commitments; and what she learned from her DBA at Hitotsubashi ICS. (Read part 1 of this blogpost here)

There have been fewer opportunities to feature the DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) program, our doctorate program at Hitotsubashi ICS compared to our MBA and DBA programs. In this edition of our alumni voices, we sat down with DBA graduate, Asuka Takaoka, to talk about her DBA journey at Hitotsubashi ICS.

Asuka graduated from the part-time DBA program while working full-time. We talked to her about why she decided to pursue a doctoral degree, how she spent her five years at DBA, her research theme, and how she manages her time. We have divided the interview into two parts.

Charlie, Nabe, Shige, and I joined the Yale Africa Startup Review this year, where our team, the "Otaku Four," collaborated with Developers In Vogue (DIV). DIV is a Ghanaian NGO that provides African women with IT education, such as programming to boost the social advancement of African women.

In 2020, 87% of the graduates who were job-hunting in Japan successfully found a job. In particular, amongst the two-year program graduates who were actively seeking a job in Japan, 100% of them were offered a position.  

On January 26, 2021, a webinar titled “DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES AND ORGANIZATIONAL AGILITY: RISK, UNCERTAINTY, AND STRATEGY IN THE NEW NORMAL” was hosted by Hitotsubashi ICS and The Berkeley Research Group.

Dean Kaz facilitated the 90-minute webinar, where three prominent professors gave presentations followed by a Q&A session.

Norio Imai, a DBA student of Hitotsubashi ICS shared the event report with us. 

Kula, from the Class of 2019 shared her 2nd-year activity experiences during the COVID-19 and her decision to change her activity from the Exchange program to the Internship program.

Kulasara Mahanama Siriwardena (Kula)

She majored in Information System Engineering with a Bachelor of Engineering. Before entering ICS, she experienced project coordinator and a software engineer with a demonstrated history of working in the industrial automation industry at the global corporation, Yokogawa Electric Corporation. She currently works at AI Ethics Promotion Office at Sony Group Corporation. Fluent in both Japanese and English.

Hello everyone, I’m Tangtang from ICS MBA 2020 class. Before I came to ICS, I had heard there was an exciting and special event, Auction Day Event, from Senpai. The Auction items are freely prepared by all the students, staff, and faculties. Everyone can bid on that item and the overall auction income will be used for further class activities.

In March 2021, we were honored to renew or partnership for the BEST Alliance (Beijing, Seoul, and Tokyo), uniting Hitotsubashi ICS with two Top Business Schools, Guanghua School of Management at Peking University (PKU) and Graduate School of Business at Seoul National University (SNU).

One of the most attractive features of Hitotsubashi ICS is the double-degree program, which is an option for students in the two-year program.