If you're into ancient temples, precision-obsessed cuisine, cherry blossoms and a city that feels like Japan's cultural memory made physical, then Temple University's Japan Campus is worth serious consideration. TUJ is the oldest and largest American university in Japan, part of Temple University in the United States, and you choose Tokyo or Kyoto as your start location when you apply. The Kyoto campus sits in a city built around more than a thousand temples and shrines, preserved wooden neighbourhoods like Gion, and the calm ritual side of Japan you don't find in Tokyo. Tokyo gives you the opposite: the largest city on earth, TUJ's main campus and the widest course offering. You pick undergraduate-level courses taught in English across International Business, Communication Studies, Psychology, Asian Studies and Computer Science. TUJ follows the US credit system, so most courses are worth 3 credits and European universities typically convert that to around 6 ECTS; you enrol in 12 to 18 credits per semester, roughly 30 ECTS, with your home university making the final call on transfer. Tuition for one exchange semester is 910,000 JPY, around EUR 5,000, with application, orientation, visa and mandatory health insurance fees on top. One of TUJ's biggest practical advantages is that the university arranges your housing: key money, deposit, contracts, utilities and Wi-Fi are all handled for you, and rooms come furnished with a private bathroom and small kitchen, so you can spend your energy on Japan instead of paperwork. Autumn runs 31 August to 9 December, spring from January to April, and from Kyoto, Osaka, Nara and the Tokyo Shinkansen are all on the doorstep.
Kyoto, Japan
Founded: 1982
Student Population: ~3,300 undergraduate
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