Kindle Notes & Highlights
There is nothing I (or even you, most likely) can do about your grades in your last degree. The higher they are, the better your chances of winning the scholarship will be.
Your FSRPP is not a final plan for your research in Japan.
In Japan, the FSRPP, or something very similar, is a requirement for all graduate school applications. It is not unique to the MEXT scholarship.
It must also show that you have the skills and knowledge to conduct research.1
Have the necessary background in your field to pursue a graduate degree, Understand the key issues in your field, Are prepared to conduct original research on your own initiative, Understand research methodologies in your field, Can create a well thought-out research question and hypothesis, and Can create a realistic research plan on your own.
Research Recent Theses in Your Field: Once you have decided on a program and university in Japan, check their website to see if they list recent thesis titles. If you can go a step further and find those theses, either published in journals or as monograms, and read them, that will be your best possible source to determine the research expectations for your program.
instead of researching how to revitalize rural areas, an appropriate subject would be to research the conditions and outcomes of a particular rural revitalization project,
the purpose of the Field of Study and Research Program Plan is ultimately to facilitate communication with the reviewers and help you win the scholarship,
Make sure you propose a research topic and method that you actually want to pursue, not just something you think your reviewers want to hear.
The way you present your goal in the Field of Study and Research Program Plan is much more important than what your field itself is.
You have to focus to find a research question.
List any research topics you can think of that would serve your SMART goal.
The purpose of the initial literature review is to identify the current research trends in your field, catch up with what has already been researched, and identify an area where you could possibly complete original research to contribute to the field.
Throughout this review, you should be looking for sub-fields related to your research topic that interest you, as well as areas that have been under-researched or where there is no conclusive understanding.
Any research that has already been done on your topic. Include the specific research, method, conclusion, and, of course, the author and title. Any conflicts in the field. If there are multiple competing theories or explanations, or if there are similar studies with divergent results, note the authors, titles, and conclusions. Any assumptions past authors have made that are not backed up by research. Any suggestions for further research in the authors’ conclusions. Any field studies, experiments, etc., that have only been conducted in limited environments and could benefit from
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You will need to get into the “field” (whether that is a literal field or figurative one) to produce new data and base your conclusions off of what you find.
A research gap is an area where there have been few primary research studies conducted, or an area where the existing research has been limited in scope.
A research question should always address the “how” or “why” of a phenomenon. It should not be something that you can answer with a single data point, a factual response, or a yes/no answer.
Eventually, your question should be: Clear: The wording should leave no doubt as to what question you want to answer. Focused: Your research question must be narrow enough that it is feasible to research through a single method during the time you have for your degree. Arguable: It must address an area of uncertainty in your field and not be a question that results in an objective answer. Significant: It must contribute meaningful data to your field and to your research problem. (We have already addressed this by developing your question through the literature review, but it bears
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Once you have your list of questions, choose one that excites you the most. It is important that your research problem and question be something that you are excited about. Once you are selected for the MEXT scholarship, you will be spending the next 2-4 years of your life working on this topic. You need something that will hold your interest that long and something you can continue working toward, even when the work gets difficult or tedious.
Your question should leave no doubt as to what it is you want to research. You will eventually be explaining the question to prospective academic advisers, so make sure it is something they can understand.
make sure your question is focused enough that you can research it through a single approach and produce a conclusion within the span of your degree.
Your question must be sufficiently complex as to not have a clear-cut answer. If your research question can be answered with a yes, no, or a concrete answer, such as a statistic, it is not sufficiently arguable. You should revise it to ask “why” or “how” about that data point.
You do not need to reach out to the professor to establish contact yet – in fact, I would recommend that you wait until you have your own research idea more developed – but you want to gain a clear understanding of their research and how it intersects with your own.
Identify at least one professor at a Japanese university, who is affiliated with a degree program taught in English and who could supervise your research. 18.a. University Name: 18.b. Graduate School Name: 18.c. Professor Name: 18.d. Link to university’s and/or professor’s website: 19. What is that professor’s current research focus? (Refer to publications, conferences, and websites/profiles, if available) 20. Why do you want to study under that professor? 21. What will your research topic contribute to that professor’s own field of interest?
In the focused literature review, you want to get as deep an understanding as possible about the research that has already been conducted around your research question, so that you can critically review it and look for opportunities.
Here are some questions to ask as you go through your sources: Has the question been fully explained? Is there an easier way to explain it? Are there multiple competing theories? Are there examples that cannot be explained by the prevailing theory? Is it possible to approach the problem from a new perspective? Can you approach the problem from multiple perspectives to gain a more nuanced understanding? Are there any external relationships or related phenomena that have been ignored?
Based on the notes from your focused literature review, list all of the ways that your research question has been explained by existing research, including the methodology, sample, and conclusion of each study. 8. If there are any areas where you feel the explanation is incomplete or needs reinforcement by additional research, list those.
when you write your Field of Study and Research Program Plan, your goal in discussing past research is to establish for the reviewers that you know your field well enough to be able to conduct original research. One or two references should be enough to prove your point.
How has the research been received in the past? From your notes, you should have indications of how scholars in your field and outside of it received and appreciated past research. Was there skepticism? Appreciation? Application? Rejection?
Do your best to make sure that your example meets the following requirements: You can research it in Japan; You can justify why your specific example is representative of the whole and/or contributes to your research question in a new way; If possible, it should be related to your first-choice professor’s own research and/or can be researched nearby your target university.
the example that you choose at this stage is slightly less important than your ability to explain why you selected it. The reviewers are interested in your knowledge of the field, yes, but they are more interested in your academic potential, including your research and analysis ability.
the methodology plays a key role in determining the validity of your results.
you will likely state your methodology and methods in a single sentence, such as, “This study will approach the problem through a combination of quantitative and qualitative research by first conducting and analyzing the results of a multiple-choice survey then following up with targeted interviews of the subject population.”
Your hypothesis is the statement that you will examine throughout the course of your research. It is supposed to help you focus; it is not supposed to be correct at this point of your academic career.
Remember the role of the Field of Study and Research Program Plan: This document serves to show the review committee that you have the skills and knowledge it takes to conduct research. One of those skills is being able to formulate a hypothesis,
The review committee will not expect it to be a final, correct answer, but they will expect you to be able to show your reasoning for how you came up with it. You will not need to put all of your justification into your Field of Study and Research Program Plan, but anticipate that you will need to present it orally during your interview.
http://www.transenzjapan.com/blog/mext-scholarship-field-of-study-and-research-program-plan-elements/
One final task your Past and Present Field of Study should accomplish is to show how you plan to contribute to your country and its relationship with Japan in the future, and why that goal makes this research necessary, as we established in Book 1 of this series. You want your reviewers to come away from this section thinking, “This applicant is qualified, organized, and focused. This is the kind of person we should select to see positive benefits of the scholarship program.”
In one sentence, explain how your research will enable you to accomplish your professional goal.
This should take a format like, “This study will research [RESEARCH QUESTION] by examining [SPECIFIC EXAMPLE] from [APPROACH] perspective in order to [OUTCOME].”
Kawajuku Active Learning Center (KALS), a company that specializes in helping Japanese students apply to graduate school, advises that any reader should be able to grasp the problem and the intended outcome, even if they are not familiar with your field.
it is important to balance the need to appeal to experts and non-experts. My recommendation is to start each paragraph with a non-technical topic sentence that a non-expert can follow, then describe the technical details in the body of the paragraph for an academic expert to be able to tell that you know what you are talking about.
(the research methodology, hypothesis, and specific research plan) is where you show your reviewers that you will be a competent researcher. A detailed plan that shows the required steps and gives enough time for each of them will show that you know what you are doing.
Make sure that all of the sections connect to one another and that there are no contradictions or repetitions.
