Courses and Events - Overseas and Online Japanese Language Courses

For a calendar of upcoming courses and events only, see our What's On page.

Courses for Specialists in Cultural and Academic Fields

Programme for Specialists in Cultural and Academic Fields - Kansai, Japan

With the aim of supporting specialists who require Japanese-language proficiency in order to smoothly perform their specialized work and research activities (such as researchers, graduate students, librarians, museum and art museum curators), this program provides training to improve their Japanese-language ability by learning practical Japanese and actually using it in their research and specialized work-related activities, conducted at the Japanese-Language Institute, Kansai.

*In FY2026, only a six-month course will be offered.

Dates for FY 2025-26 programme:

Course Dates: From early-October 2026 to late-March 2027
Applications available: on the programme list on our Tokyo site
Application Deadline: Apply through Online Application Portal by 1 p.m., December 2, 2025 (Japan Standard Time)
Notification of Results: Late April 2026

Please contact the Japan Foundation to discuss eligibility before applying.

For further details on this programme either contact The Japan Foundation London or go to our Tokyo site.

Courses for Teachers of Japanese in Japan

The Japan Foundation Japanese Language Institute in Urawa organises several training programmes for teachers of Japanese. The eligibility, length of courses and content is different for each programme. For more information and to download an application form, please visit the Japan Foundation head office's website. Click here for English and click here for Japanese.

The onsite courses aimed at teachers of the Japanese Language for Fiscal Year 2026 that are open to candidates from the UK are as follows:

Basic Training Program for Teachers of the Japanese Language
Japanese Language Program for Teachers of the Japanese Language
Japanese Teaching Methods Program for Teachers of the Japanese Language (Conducted twice: Summer and Winter)

1. Basic Training Program for Teachers of the Japanese-Language

This program is designed to provide young teachers of the Japanese language in overseas organizations who are early in their career with an opportunity to improve their Japanese-language skills, acquire the basic teaching methodologies, and deepen their knowledge of Japan. The training course will be conducted for approximately six months.

Dates for FY 2026 programme:

Application Deadline: Apply through Online Application Portal by 1 p.m., December 2, 2025 (Japan Standard Time)
Course dates: September 1, 2026 to February 25, 2027 (tentative)

For more information and to download an application form, please visit the Japan Foundation head office's website. Click here for English and click here for Japanese

2. Japanese Language Programme for Teachers of the Japanese-Language

This program is designed to provide teachers of the Japanese language with an opportunity to deepen their knowledge of Japan and to improve the Japanese-language skills necessary for a teacher of the Japanese language. The training course will be conducted for approximately seven weeks. There will be no lessons on Japanese-language teaching methodologies or skills.

For more information and to download an application form, please visit the Japan Foundation head office's website. Click here for English and click here for Japanese.

Dates for FY 2026 programme:

Application Deadline: Apply through Online Application Portal by 1 p.m., December 2, 2025 (Japan Standard Time)
Course dates: June 2, 2026 to July 23, 2026 (tentative)

3. Japanese Teaching Methods Program for Teachers of the Japanese Language (Conducted twice: Summer and Winter)

Training Program of six weeks duration, which are designed to improve the teaching methodology, will be conducted in two separate groups (Summer Session and Winter Session) in FY2026. There will be no lessons for improving Japanese-language skills.

Description of the Program

a. Japanese-Language Teaching Methodologies This program is aimed to introduce, organize and expand knowledge on Japanese-language teaching methodologies with the aim of improving expertise as a teacher. Participants will review their educational site and consider how to solve problems utilizing the content of this training program.

b. Japanese Culture/Japanese Society Participants will take lectures and workshops to consider the contents and methods of culture introduction as part of Japanese-language education or cross-cultural understanding education.

For more information and to download an application form, please visit the Japan Foundation head office's website. Click here for English and click here for Japanese.

Dates for FY 2026 programme:

Application Deadline: Apply through Online Application Portal by 1 p.m., December 2, 2025 (Japan Standard Time)

Course dates:

Two courses will take place of six weeks each.

Summer Course: July 14, 2026 to August 27, 2026 (tentative)
Autumn Course: January 19, 2027 to March 4, 2027 (tentative)

Online Courses for Teachers of Japanese

Online Course for Teachers of Japanese to Study Teaching Methods – B1 Self-Study Course

The Japan Foundation has developed a course to train teachers in key knowledge regarding Japanese language education. The course materials were designed for those already teaching Japanese, in order to further improve their teaching methods. However, they are also suitable for use by aspiring Japanese teachers.

Venue: Online (Minato)
Cost: Free
Date: N/A (these course materials are available at any time for self-study)
Content: Course materials include videos, text, and a review quiz for each topic.
Level of Japanese Used: B1 (CEFR)

There are eight course topics. Please follow the hyperlinks to access them:

Important: You do not have to access every course topic (you can do as many or as few as you would like), and you do not have to access the course topics in any order.