Tutor System and Selection of Tutor Students 

This is a system in which students enrolled in Okayama University become tutors to provide individual extracurricular guidance on daily life support, education, and research for international students who have recently arrived in Japan.
Tutor students will receive rewards based on the performance of their activities.

  • Newly coming to Japan (excluding students from other educational institutions in Japan)
  • Studying in Japan for more than 5 months
  • Status of residence: Student

    Only international students who meet all of the above criteria and whose academic advisor recognizes that they need support for various procedures after arriving in Japan and for studying Japanese language skills are eligible for this system.

Around February and August, the International Affairs Department will send an email to each faculty/graduate school informing them about the application for tutoring students. Please apply through your faculty/graduate school by the due date. 
If you accept international students in the middle of a term other than April or October, please also apply through your faculty/graduate school. 

*Please note that there are different deadlines for tutor applications depending on the period of acceptance. The deadline will be notified to the persons in charge of international students in each faculty/graduate school.

The new international student’s advising professor selects the tutor student.

Tutors of any affiliation are welcome as long as they are regular students of Okayama University.

Students who have been enrolled at Okayama University for at least six months (including previous courses) are eligible to become tutors. However, activities are limited to daily life support.
Special auditing students and special research students are not eligible to become tutors.

Yes. However, please obtain permission to engage in activity other than that permitted under the status of residence previously granted and work within the limits stipulated by the Immigration Control Act.

Any grade is acceptable as long as the student is selected by the advising professor. However, when undergraduate student becomes tutors, it is preferable that the students be students of the same grade or higher than the student being tutored. 

No problem. However, please be careful not to duplicate the time of the activity. If hours are duplicated, only one person will receive the reward.

The Tutor Application Form must be submitted by the academic advisor to the administrative office of the international student’s faculty. If the tutor student is an international student, a copy of their residence card is also required. 
The Registration Form of the Bank Account and My Number Notification Form must be submitted directly to the International Affairs Department office by the tutor student. 




Tutor Activities

The following information is for AY2024. The end date will not change no matter when the acceptance begins during the period.

New international students 

  • Accepted from April to July: April 1, 2024 – July 31, 2024
  • Accepted from August to September: August 1, 2024 – September 15, 2024
  • Accepted from October to January: September 24, 2024 – January 31, 2025
  • Accepted from February to March: February 1, 2025 – March 10, 2025
  • JICA students: April 1, 2024 – September 15, 2024, September 24, 2024 – February 14, 2025

Please contact the International Affairs Department at your earliest convenience. Please note, however, that there is a limit to the number of hours tutors can work, and no rewards will be made if the tutor exceed that limit.

Each academic year, the budget will be determined within the limits of the budget. The following information is for AY2024.

Please check with the status of the international student you are in charge of.

  • Regular students, research students, Japanese preparatory education students, and teacher training students:
    Up to 25 hours in total during the term
  • Special Auditing Students, Special Research Students, and Japanese Studies Students (whose period of stay is 5 months or longer):
    Up to 15 hours in total during the period 
  • JICA students already enrolled: 
    Up to 50 hours in total during the period
  • New JICA students coming to Japan:
    Up to 75 hours in total during the period

A letter of reasons is required. Tutoring students should contact the International Affairs Department individually. 

Activity hours per day are limited to 4 hours; total hours worked including other employment or paid work, such as TAs, are limited to 7 hours and 45 minutes per day.
If the activity exceeds 5 hours, you must take a one-hour break in the middle of the activity.

In order to ensure that the tutors’ activities do not interfere with their academic work, the tutors’ guidelines stipulate that their activities should be limited. 

This is because it is stipulated in the Immigration Control Act. Please note that violation of this law may result in revocation of your status of residence. 

Examples of support eligible for this program are as follows. 

  1. Support for daily life, including procedures after arrival in Japan
    Pick up and drop off students at their destination, accompany them to city office for procedures (resident registration, national health insurance), accompany them to open bank accounts, help with shopping after arrival, assist in preparing documents to be submitted to the university, sign up for cell phone, guide them to the cafeterias, and other university facilities, and explain how to use them, etc.

    *International students are expected to complete city office procedures and open a bank account on their own. We ask that international students, especially those who have difficulty communicating in Japanese, take advantage of this system and be accompanied by a tutor student as much as possible. 

  2. Tutoring in education and research
    Supplementary study and consultation for lectures, research, experiments, practical training, etc., assistance with preparation for and reporting on round lectures and seminars, supplementary correction of reports and research papers, advice on the use of facilities related to your field of specialization, explanation of technical terms, supplementary Japanese language study, introduction and explanation of Japanese culture and customs, consultation on studying for graduate school entrance examinations, etc.

Refer to the Tutor Guide and discuss with their academic advisor to decide.

Consult with their academic advisor, including when to contact them. The International Affairs Department does not provide contact information to tutor students or tutored international students. 

Since this tutoring system plays an important role in helping international students build a foundation for life in a different culture, online tutoring activities are available only when the student is living in Japan. Please use this tutoring system after they come to Japan.

Meals, sightseeing, car rides, and other activities not related to living, teaching, or research support are not acceptable as tutoring activities.




Documents to be Submitted

People who need to submit the form are as follows. 

  • Those who are new to tutoring
  • Those who tutored before but their student ID number has changed due to going on to higher education or other reasons  
  • Those who submitted the form for employment as a TA, part-time staff, medical staff, etc. (You need to submit this because it is handled differently!) 

People who do not need to submit the form are as follows. 

  • Those with current student ID number who tutored before and whose bank account information has not changed.   
  • Those with current student ID number who submitted in the past for on-campus paid work, travel to conferences, etc.

Please inform the International Affairs Department that you have “already submitted.”

In principle, all tutoring students are requested to submit the form. If you have previously submitted to Okayama University, please inform the International Affairs Department of that fact.

In Okayama City, it can be obtained at City Hall/Ward Offices, Okayama International Center B1F Citizen Service Corner, etc. It costs 300 yen for issuance.

My Number Notification Form: Email and on-campus mail are not acceptable. Please submit it at the International Affairs Department office window. This is because it is important personal information. 
Registration Form of the Bank Account: Either email, on-campus mail, or at the window are acceptable. 
Post-tutoring Report: Please submit it at the International Affairs Department office window. We will check the report on the spot. 

Please submit this form as soon as you have completed your tutoring activities or have reached your maximum tutoring hours. Check this page for submission deadlines.
There is no need to wait until the submission deadline, so we ask for your cooperation in submitting the form as soon as possible.
The signatures of both the international student for whom you are tutoring and their academic advisor are required, so please make sure to take enough time to ask them.  

Please consult the International Affairs Department as soon as possible. In some cases, rewards may not be paid.

 

Payment of Rewards and Others 

If the Post-tutoring Report is submitted by the due date, the following is the approximate date of payment for AY2024.
Tutored international student whose acceptance starts

  • From April to July: September 25
  • August to September: October 25
  • October to January: March 25
  • February to March: April 25
  • JICA students: October 25 and March 25

Since tutors are not employed but paid an reward, we cannot provide a certificate of employment. 
We can provide you with a copy of the tutor student application form prepared by the supervisor, the post-tutoring report prepared by the tutor student, or/and a copy of the notification document containing the amount of the tutor’s reward and examples of tutor activities. 
Please send the following information to the International Affairs Department by email.
Please contact us as soon as possible, as it takes time to issue one. 

  • Student number
  • Faculty/graduate school
  • Full name
  • Period of tutoring activities (from MM to MM, YYYY) 

A copy of the Gensen Choshuhyo (Certificate of Withholding Tax) will serve as proof. If you do not have the Gensen Choshuhyo at hand, you will be required to request a re-issuance. 
Please send the following information to the International Affairs Department by email.
Please contact us as soon as possible, as it takes about one week to issue one. 

  • Student number
  • Faculty/graduate school
  • Full name
  • Period of tutoring activities (from MM to MM, YYYY) 

 

Contact Us
International Affairs Department dde7046●adm.okayama-u.ac.jp
※Please replace ● with @.