Prospective Graduate Students — Admissions Information

1. What we do

The Department of Public Health and Health Systems, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, led by Professor Hiroshi Yatsuya, studies the epidemiology of non-communicable diseases — cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity and their lifestyle and occupational determinants — together with the social determinants of health and the organisation of health systems.

Our work is built on long-running cohort studies and on pooled analysis of data from many cohorts. The main resource available to students is the Aichi Workers' Cohort Study, a worksite-based prospective cohort running since 2002. That cohort also contributes data to several consortia: JALS and EPOCH-Japan in Japan, and internationally CKDPC and the Obesity, Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease Collaboration.

We also take part in the JPHC and JPHC-NEXT studies, the JACC Study, NIPPON DATA, the NILS-LSA, and the JACSIS / JASTIS surveys. Use of data held by these studies and consortia is decided by each study's own committee, so do not assume in your proposal that a particular dataset will be available to you.

Applicants are expected to be interested in quantitative, data-based research on human populations. We do not conduct laboratory-based molecular work, animal experiments, or clinical trials, and we cannot supervise research of that kind.

Representative publications

Read at least one of these before you apply. You will be asked about a paper from our laboratory in the application form.

• Song Z, Takada M, et al. Association between occupational stress responses and cardiovascular disease incidence in middle-aged Japanese: findings from the Aichi Workers' Cohort Study. Int Arch Occup Environ Health. 2025;99(1):3.
• Akter T, Song Z, et al. Association of adipose tissue insulin resistance with risk of diabetes incidence in middle-aged Japanese workers according to BMI states: 17 years of follow-up of the Aichi Workers' Cohort Study. J Epidemiol. 2026;36(1):44–50.
• Nuamah HG, Song Z, et al. Changes in body mass index and waist circumference as predictors of incident prediabetes: the Aichi Workers' Cohort Study. Sci Rep. 2026;16(1).
• Endale BT, Song Z, et al. The association between chronotype and metabolic syndrome in middle-aged Japanese civil servants: a longitudinal study from the Aichi Workers' Cohort. Chronobiol Int. 2025.
• Paththamesthrige SEP, Matsunaga M, et al. Association between tendency to overeat and the incidence of prediabetes: Aichi Workers' Cohort Study. Environ Health Prev Med. 2026;31:59.

A current list is on PubMed.

2. Capacity

We can supervise only a small number of new students. In a typical intake that means roughly two in the master's course and two in the doctoral course, though the number varies with how many students are already in the laboratory and at what stage their work has reached. What is fixed is that places are few, and that an intake shown below as closed is closed.

Updated September 17, 2026. Applications for an intake shown as closed are not reviewed, regardless of funding, nomination or qualifications. An intake shown as open may still fill before its deadline.

This applies to the degree courses. Beginning earlier as a research student (研究生) does not create an additional place — see Section 5.

3. Applicants we cannot accept

Please do not apply if any of the following applies to you. These applications are rejected without review.

• Master's course applicants under the MEXT University Recommendation scheme — at Nagoya University this scheme is not available for the master's course. This is not a decision we can make an exception to.
• Applicants whose background is not in medicine, public health, nursing, pharmacy, nutrition, biology, statistics, data science, or a related quantitative field.
• Applicants who cannot document the funding for their entire period of study (see Section 5).
• Applicants who do not meet the language requirement in Section 4.
• Applicants seeking a visiting researcher, internship, or short-term training position. We do not offer these.
• Applicants proposing laboratory or animal experiments, or clinical trials.
• Applicants who have not read this page. This is usually obvious from the application.

4. Requirements

Academic background

• A completed degree (or expected completion before enrollment) in a relevant field.
• Coursework in statistics and/or epidemiology. Please be prepared to name the courses and the textbooks used.
• Doctoral applicants must meet the educational requirements set by the Graduate School of Medicine (see the links in Section 5). Applicants who do not yet meet them — most often, holders of a five-year medical degree — may be able to make up the shortfall as a research student first; see Section 5.

Quantitative skills

• Ability to carry out data analysis without step-by-step supervision, using at least one of R, SAS, Stata, SPSS, or Python.
• Master's applicants: prior hands-on analysis experience is strongly preferred.
• Doctoral applicants: prior hands-on analysis experience is required.

Language

• English: the level specified in the admission guidelines of the Graduate School of Medicine. See the links in Section 5 for the current requirement, and meet it before you apply.
• Japanese: not required. You will be supervised in English, and we do not ask for a JLPT level. That said, courses in Japanese are available to you while you are here, and students who learn the language find more opportunities open to them — in fieldwork, in contact with study participants, and in careers in Japan afterwards.

What the doctoral course requires

• To be awarded the degree you must publish at least one first-author paper meeting the journal requirements, and pass your thesis defense. Coursework alone does not lead to the degree.
• Your research topic must follow the rules set by the laboratory. You cannot pursue an unrelated topic of your own choosing.

Research proposal

• Your thesis work will be based on our own data, principally the Aichi Workers' Cohort Study. Write your proposal on that basis. Other datasets are occasionally possible later in your course, once your main analysis is complete and where there is a strong reason.
• Proposals built on fieldwork in your home country, or on data you would still need to obtain, cannot be accepted. We value that motivation, and we hope you will be able to pursue such work later in your career, using the training you gain here.

5. Funding routes and deadlines

You must identify your funding route when you apply. Submit the form by the deadline for your route; applications received after the deadline are not reviewed until the next cycle.

These are our own deadlines. They are not the same as the deadlines in the Graduate School's admission guidelines, or the deadlines set by your embassy or scholarship scheme. Ours fall earlier, because screening, the interview and the export control check all have to be completed before you can meet those.

Every route follows the same three steps, in this order: we check your documents, we interview the applicants who pass that check, and we then decide. Section 7 sets out what each step involves.

• October entry is the normal route for international students, and the one we recommend. Selection is through the Global 30 International Program, with the examination held in January, and the whole process can be completed from your own country. April entry requires several documents to be sent on paper by post and additional support from our office, which is why we ask for applications much earlier. For the doctoral course, April entry also requires you to travel to Japan to sit the examination. Master's course examinations are currently conducted online, so April entry is a realistic option there.
• MEXT University Recommendation is a nomination, not a scholarship you hold. Applying under this scheme means asking us to put your name forward. The Graduate School then selects a small number of candidates each year from across all its laboratories, so our agreement to nominate you is not an award, and you should apply with an alternative plan in mind. If you need the Graduate School's preliminary eligibility review, its own deadline falls in early November, so apply to us well before the end of October. Applications reaching us in November can be considered only if places remain. This scheme also requires a GPA of 2.30 or above on the MEXT scale; check your transcript against it before applying.

• Acceptance by our laboratory is not admission to the university. You must separately pass the entrance examination of the Graduate School of Medicine and complete the university's own procedures. The official requirements are published on the Graduate School's Master's admission and Doctoral admission pages. We will explain these steps only after you pass our internal screening.
• All applicants, regardless of route, must clear security export control screening required by Japanese law and by Nagoya University. Screening is usually finished within a few days, but if further information is needed it can take around two weeks. Incomplete or inconsistent answers will stop your application.
• Research student (研究生) status is a non-degree status, used in two situations: to begin research before your degree course starts — for example, arriving in April when your course begins in October — or to make up an educational shortfall that would otherwise prevent entry to the doctoral course. Tuition is charged for this period unless your scholarship covers it. Research student status carries no advantage in the entrance examination and no promise of admission afterwards: you must still apply and pass in the usual way, and we assess research student applications against the same criteria and the same capacity as everything else. General requirements are on the Graduate School's Research student admission page.

6. How to apply

Go to the application form

The form takes about 30 minutes. You will be asked to write short answers in your own words, and to upload two documents, which are what we actually read when we screen applications:

• CV (PDF, 2 pages maximum)
• Research proposal (PDF, 2 pages maximum)

Please also upload, as supporting information:

• Academic transcripts for all degrees, with the grading scale explained
• Your English test score report, if you have one
• Scholarship nomination or award documentation, if you have one

Nothing else is needed at this stage. Degree certificates, export control paperwork and the documents required by the Graduate School are requested later, and only if you reach that point.

Please prepare the files before starting. You will need a Google account to submit the form, because it accepts file uploads. If you do not have one, you can create one free of charge before you start. Signing in also lets you leave the form and return to it later.

7. What happens after you apply

1. Screening (all applicants). We review the form. You will hear from us later. Because of the volume of applications, we cannot give individual feedback on unsuccessful applications.
2. Interview (shortlisted applicants). 20 to 30 minutes online. You will be asked to explain your own previous research and analysis in detail. Slides are not required.
3. Export control screening. Additional documents will be requested.
4. Conditional acceptance. If successful, we will confirm that we are willing to supervise you and guide you through the university's application procedure.

8. Frequently asked questions

Can I send you my CV to see if I am a good fit?

No. Please use the form.

I have already been nominated by my embassy. Does that guarantee a place?

No. Nomination means your scholarship is likely to be funded; it does not mean a laboratory has agreed to supervise you. We assess all applicants against the same criteria and against the capacity in Section 2.

I emailed you and received no reply.

Emails about admission receive an automated reply pointing to this page, and we do not answer them individually. This applies to follow-up emails as well. Applications must come through the form.

Do I need a Google account?

Yes. The form accepts file uploads, and Google requires you to be signed in to use them. Creating an account is free and takes a few minutes.

If Google is blocked in the country where you are, you will not be able to open the form at all. In that case, write to intnl-h@med.nagoya-u.ac.jp with "No access to Google" in the subject line, and we will send you another way to apply. Please do not attach any documents to that message.

I submitted the form. How do I know it arrived?

You will receive a copy of your answers by email immediately after submitting. If nothing arrives, check your spam folder first. If it is not there, the address you entered was probably incorrect — submit the form again with the correct address.

I would like to start as a research student and then move up to the graduate course. Is that possible?

Research student status exists, but it is not a route around the entrance examination and not a way to secure a place in advance. It is used to begin research before a course that starts later, or to make up an educational shortfall. You will pay tuition for that period unless a scholarship covers it, you will still have to apply and pass the examination, and having been a research student will not count in your favour. Apply through the form in the same way, and say in Section E why you need the research student period.

Do I need a publication to apply for the doctoral course?

No. Most applicants have not published before they apply, and we do not treat that as a weakness. What we look at is whether you can describe an analysis you carried out yourself. If you do list publications, expect to be asked at interview to explain the methods of one of them and what your own contribution was. To be awarded the degree you will need at least one first-author paper, but that is work you do here.

Do I need to speak Japanese?

No. Supervision is in English. Japanese courses are available once you are here, and learning the language will widen what you can do — but it is not a condition of admission.

Is there a fee?

No fee is charged by our laboratory. University application and tuition fees are set by Nagoya University.

Last updated: September 17, 2026