University entry for April 2027: the three selections, the common test, and the national fee standard

April 2027 university entry (令和9年度) is not one national exam that admits you. The Ministry of Education's guidelines tell every university to publish how it will judge applicants, and to combine the high-school report (調査書), academic tests, an essay, an interview, a practical test, and certificates in whatever mix matches that faculty. Passing is the university's decision. A legal right to apply is not an offer.

Three ways a university may select

The guidelines describe three methods.

The general selection (一般選抜) uses academic tests as the main material: the university's own subject tests, or the Common Test for University Admissions (大学入学共通テスト), or both, plus the report and whatever else the faculty adds.

The comprehensive selection (総合型選抜) is a public application the student files on their own. The guidelines say it uses a careful reading of documents and a careful interview, and that the interview is required. "Interview" includes a debate, a group discussion, a presentation, an oral exam, and an online version. The student's own activity report, statement of purpose and study plan have to be part of the judgment. The university must also use at least one of the academic methods in the guidelines, and say so in the guidebook.

The school-recommendation selection (学校推薦型選抜) starts from the high-school principal's recommendation and the report. The student cannot file it by themselves. The guidelines say an interview is required here too, except a non-public recommendation where the student has promised to enrol if they pass and the university and the high school have already matched carefully. In that exception the university may decide whether to interview. The recommendation letter has to address the faculty's admissions policy.

A track aimed at returnees or at adults does not have to use the date rules below. Other universities are free to add their own requirements on top of the legal minimum. The guidelines say a university that does so should be able to explain the reason.

The calendar for April 2027

What	When the guidelines or the Center set it
Comprehensive selection: applications open	On or after Tue 1 Sep 2026
Comprehensive selection: results	On or after Sun 1 Nov 2026
School recommendation: applications open	On or after Sun 1 Nov 2026
School recommendation: results	On or after Tue 1 Dec 2026, and at least 10 days before that university's general exam. If the recommendation uses the Common Test, as early as possible and no later than the day before the general exam
Each university's guidebook (subjects, fees, how to file)	By Tue 15 Dec 2026
Common Test	Sat 16 and Sun 17 Jan 2027. Make-up for illness or injury: Sat 23 and Sun 24 Jan 2027
Universities' own subject tests for the general selection	Between Mon 1 Feb and Thu 25 Mar 2027
General-selection results	By Wed 31 Mar 2027

The Common Test's own outline, from the National Center for University Entrance Examinations, adds the filing dates. You can apply if you are applying to a university and you have finished a high school or a six-year secondary school, or will finish in March 2027, or you completed 12 years of schooling, or you are someone the enforcement regulations treat as having the same academic level, or you will be by 31 March 2027. Create the account from Wed 1 Jul 2026. File and pay from Tue 15 Sep through Fri 2 Oct 2026. Correct the filing from Fri 9 Oct through Fri 16 Oct 2026. The admission ticket is issued by early December 2026 on the same site.

The Center's fee is 18,000 yen for three or more subjects and 12,000 yen for two or fewer. Geography-history and civics count as one subject for that fee even if you sit both. Pay by credit card, convenience store or Pay-easy. The payment-service fee is yours. A score view on the site is another 300 yen, paid with the exam fee. A student who will finish a full-time high school or secondary school in March 2027 is assigned a test site in the school's prefecture. Correspondence students, and everyone else, are assigned a site in the prefecture where they live.

What the national universities use as the standard fee

Private universities print their own fees in the guidebook. For national universities, the ordinance on tuition and other costs sets a standard, and each national university corporation sets the actual figure using that standard. For an undergraduate faculty the standard annual tuition is 535,800 yen, the standard admission fee is 282,000 yen, and the standard application fee is 17,000 yen. For a faculty that teaches in the evening the standards are 267,900 yen, 141,000 yen and 10,000 yen. The ordinance also says that when a national university finds it especially necessary for accepting students who hold the residence status Student (留学), it may set a different annual tuition, admission fee or application fee for those students. It does not say whether that figure is higher or lower. Read the university's guidebook, which has to state the fee and the deadline.

What this means for a foreign family

The legal permission to apply is in the School Education Act and the enforcement regulations. The guidelines point there and do not replace them. A student who did not attend a Japanese high school that is an Article 1 school still has to fit one of those routes, and then fit that university's own extra requirements. The University of Tokyo's special selection for graduates of a foreign school is a different set of rules, in a separate article. It is not the national calendar above.

The foreign-language subjects on the Common Test are English, German, French, Chinese and Korean. Whether a faculty requires the test is in its guidebook.

What goes wrong

The Center does not assign you a seat until it has accepted the filing. A pass at one university does not hold a seat at another.

What to do now