JSPS Funding: KAKENHI Grants & Fellowships

The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) is Japan’s principal independent research-funding agency, administering the country’s largest competitive research-grants program alongside fellowships for international researchers. Its flagship KAKENHI grants and postdoctoral/invitational fellowship schemes are the main entry points for researchers outside Japan.

This guide covers what JSPS is, where it sits in Japan’s research-funding landscape, the main categories of programs it runs, and how an international researcher or research office can realistically engage with it. It intentionally keeps KAKENHI-specific detail light and general, since that program’s own eligibility rules and category structure are involved enough to warrant separate treatment — see CASRAI’s KAKENHI (Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research) guide for that detail.

What JSPS is

JSPS was founded in 1932 as a nonprofit foundation, established with an imperial endowment. It operated as a quasi-governmental body from 1967 before being reorganized, on October 1, 2003, into an Independent Administrative Institution (a Japanese public-corporation category — 独立行政法人, dokuritsu gyōsei hōjin) under national law. That legal status is functionally similar to other countries’ arm’s-length research councils: JSPS operates with its own governance and administrative structure but is funded substantially through annual government subsidies and reports to a supervising ministry.

JSPS’s supervising ministry is the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). MEXT sets national science and education policy and allocates the budget; JSPS is the operational agency that administers a large share of that budget’s competitive research-grant and fellowship spending. According to JSPS’s own mission statement, its purpose is “to contribute to the advancement of science in all fields of the natural and social sciences and the humanities” — a scope that, notably, is not restricted to the natural sciences the way some national funders are.

JSPS describes its work across roughly five functional areas: awarding Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research; fostering young researchers; promoting international scientific cooperation; supporting academia-industry collaboration; and collecting and disseminating research information. Nearly all of the programs an outside researcher or administrator will actually interact with fall under the first three.

JSPS’s place in Japan’s funding landscape

Japan does not have a single national research council; funding responsibility is split across several agencies with different remits, and confusing JSPS with an adjacent agency is a common mistake for researchers new to the system.

JSPS is generally understood as Japan’s counterpart to a curiosity-driven, investigator-initiated research council — closest in character to bodies like the US National Science Foundation, UKRI’s research councils, or Germany’s DFG. Its flagship instrument, KAKENHI, is a peer-reviewed, competitive, bottom-up grant program open to individual researchers and teams across all disciplines, funded and reviewed under MEXT/JSPS’s own review system.
JST (Japan Science and Technology Agency) is a separate Independent Administrative Institution, also under MEXT, but oriented toward strategic, mission-driven, and translational research — funding programs tied to national science-and-technology strategy, industry-academia bridging, and innovation, rather than investigator-initiated basic research. A researcher deciding between JSPS and JST funding is typically choosing between an open, discipline-driven proposal (JSPS) and a strategically targeted program with predefined research priorities (JST).
Other agencies fund research within specific mission areas — for example, AMED (Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development) for medical and health research — and operate independently of both JSPS and JST.

For an international collaborator, the practical distinction is this: if a Japanese colleague mentions applying for “KAKENHI” or a JSPS fellowship, that funding runs through JSPS’s own peer-review system; if they mention a strategic or mission-oriented program tied to a government science-and-technology priority, that is more likely to be JST or a mission agency, not JSPS.

Major categories of JSPS funding and programs

JSPS’s program portfolio is large; it is easiest to think about it in three groups.

1. Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI)

KAKENHI is JSPS’s largest and best-known program category — a family of competitive, peer-reviewed grants covering nearly every research category from small-scale exploratory work to large, multi-year team projects, distributed across career stages and project sizes. KAKENHI is primarily open to researchers affiliated with a Japanese research institution, which is the main reason overseas researchers usually engage with JSPS through a different route — its fellowship and collaboration programs — rather than by applying for KAKENHI directly. For general terminology on this class of funding instrument, see CASRAI’s grant-in-aid dictionary entry.

2. Fellowships for researchers, Japanese and international

JSPS runs several fellowship tracks aimed at early-career researchers, split broadly between fellowships for researchers based in Japan and fellowships specifically designed to bring overseas researchers to Japan (covered in the next section). On the domestic side, JSPS’s Research Fellowships for Young Scientists provide multi-year support that allows pre- and postdoctoral researchers in Japan to concentrate on their own research programs, a track widely regarded as a marker of research promise within the Japanese academic career pipeline.

3. International scientific cooperation

JSPS maintains formal bilateral and multilateral cooperation agreements with counterpart academies, research councils, and funding agencies in numerous countries. These take the form of joint research projects, joint seminars, and researcher-exchange programs carried out under memoranda of understanding between JSPS and its overseas counterpart organizations, aimed at building sustained bilateral research-team networks rather than one-off exchanges. JSPS also maintains overseas offices (including in Washington, D.C., Bonn, and London, among others) that support these relationships and act as a point of contact for institutions in those regions.

How international researchers can engage with JSPS

Researchers who are not affiliated with a Japanese institution generally cannot apply for KAKENHI directly, but JSPS runs several programs specifically designed to bring overseas researchers into Japanese research environments. The main entry points are its Postdoctoral Fellowship programs and its Invitational Fellowships; a related, shorter track is the Summer Program.

Postdoctoral Fellowships for Research in Japan support pre- and postdoctoral researchers from overseas to conduct collaborative research at a Japanese host institution under the guidance of a Japanese host researcher. JSPS runs this at different scopes: a Standard track open more broadly by nationality, and Short-term tracks with narrower eligibility — for example, one aimed at researchers from the US, Canada, and Europe, and a separate one aimed at researchers from ASEAN member states and Africa. Program names, exact eligibility windows, and country coverage are revised periodically, so applicants should confirm current terms directly on JSPS’s Postdoctoral Fellowships for Research in Japan page rather than relying on a prior cycle’s rules.
Invitational Fellowships for Research in Japan invite established overseas researchers — not limited to early-career applicants — to Japan for collaborative research, discussions, and academic exchange with a host researcher, offered in Long-term and Short-term options. This track is aimed more at senior or mid-career researchers than the postdoctoral programs above. See JSPS’s Invitational Fellowships page for current terms.
Summer Program is a shorter (roughly two-month) opportunity for pre- and postdoctoral researchers from a defined set of partner countries (historically including the US, UK, France, Germany, Canada, and Sweden) to conduct cooperative research at a Japanese host institution, generally run in partnership with a counterpart organization in the applicant’s home country.
Bilateral and multilateral collaboration programs (joint research projects, joint seminars, researcher exchanges) are typically accessed not through an individual application to JSPS directly, but through a partner academy or research council in the researcher’s home country that holds an agreement with JSPS — meaning the practical starting point is usually that home-country body’s own call for JSPS-partnered collaboration, rather than a form on JSPS’s own site.

Because eligibility for every one of these programs is defined by specific criteria — nationality or country of current affiliation, career stage measured from degree completion, and in some cases a requirement that the application be countersigned or nominated by a partner organization in the applicant’s home country — the general eligibility overview above should not be treated as a substitute for reading the specific program’s current guidelines before starting an application.

General eligibility and application process basics

Eligibility and process differ by program, but most JSPS international fellowship and cooperation programs share a similar shape:

A Japanese host researcher or host institution is required. Nearly all of JSPS’s international programs are structured around a partnership with a specific Japanese researcher and institution that agrees to host the visit — applicants generally need to identify and secure agreement from a host before applying, not after.
Applications typically route through a partner organization, not directly to JSPS. For many programs, especially bilateral exchanges and some fellowship tracks, the application is submitted to a counterpart academy, research council, or coordinating office in the applicant’s home country, which then forwards a nomination or a joint application to JSPS — an administrative structure that differs from the direct-to-agency model researchers may be used to from funders like NIH or NSF.
Career-stage and time-since-degree criteria are common for postdoctoral tracks, defining a window (for example, a set number of years since PhD completion) within which an applicant qualifies.
Review is conducted by JSPS once an application or nomination is received, generally assessing the research plan, the fit between applicant and host, and the strength of the collaboration proposed.

Because exact deadlines, forms, funding amounts (stipend, travel, research costs), and eligibility windows change between cycles and vary by program and by partner-country agreement, the authoritative source for current details is always JSPS’s own English-language site (jsps.go.jp/english), specifically the page for the individual program in question, or the relevant partner academy’s own call for applications in the researcher’s home country.

Frequently asked questions

Is JSPS a government ministry?

No. JSPS is an Independent Administrative Institution — a distinct public-corporation legal category under Japanese law — not a ministry itself. It is funded primarily through subsidies from MEXT, the ministry responsible for national science and education policy, and operates under MEXT’s supervision, but it is a separate legal entity with its own governance structure that administers grant and fellowship programs on the government’s behalf.

What is the difference between JSPS and JST?

Both are Independent Administrative Institutions under MEXT, but they fund different kinds of research. JSPS’s flagship program, KAKENHI, is investigator-initiated, peer-reviewed, competitive research funding open across all disciplines. JST funds more strategically directed, mission-oriented research and innovation programs tied to national science-and-technology priorities, along with industry-academia bridging activities. They are not competing versions of the same thing — they occupy different positions in Japan’s funding system.

Can a researcher outside Japan apply for KAKENHI?

KAKENHI is primarily designed for researchers affiliated with a Japanese research institution. Researchers based outside Japan who want to work with JSPS typically do so instead through its dedicated international programs — postdoctoral fellowships, invitational fellowships, the Summer Program, or bilateral/multilateral collaboration programs — rather than by applying for KAKENHI itself.

Do JSPS’s international fellowships require a host researcher in Japan?

Yes, in nearly all cases. JSPS’s postdoctoral and invitational fellowship programs are structured around a partnership between the applicant and a specific host researcher and institution in Japan, and identifying a willing host is typically a prerequisite for applying, not a step that happens afterward.

Where do I find current deadlines and eligibility for a specific JSPS program?

Always check the specific program’s page on JSPS’s English-language site (jsps.go.jp/english) directly, or the relevant partner academy’s call for applications in the applicant’s home country. Program names, eligible countries, and terms are revised between cycles, so guidance describing “current” rules can go stale quickly.

JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science): Funding Overview