Overview
- Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University said about 100 of roughly 330 international students set to start in April may not enter Japan in time after the school lost its “designated” status.
- The Immigration Services Agency grants that status to schools that report student details such as names and nationalities, which lets applicants skip documents like bank balance certificates.
- APU failed to file its 2023 intake data and received a guidance notice in November 2024, which staff took as requiring no action because an enclosed paper said selection would continue.
- The university also did not submit 2024 data, prompting a second guidance in October 2025 and a notice that it had been removed from the list.
- APU called the lapse a clerical error, promised fixes, and will offer online classes to students stuck outside Japan, noting that about half of its roughly 3,300 students are from overseas.