NEWS

New APU students have not been able to enter Japan for many months now due to novel coronavirus-related governmental restrictions on immigration. However, since late August the government has begun to gradually re-open the borders and permit international students with government funding to enter the country. Recently, four students officially arrived here on APU's campus.

These four are among the 450 new students who enrolled at APU in September on external scholarships. One student (South Sudan) is on the JICA New International Student Program, and three students (Indonesia) are on the Indonesia Linkage Program. These students took PCR tests both before and after entering Japan, and then spent two weeks in quarantine supported by their scholarship organizations. They finally moved into the AP House International Dormitory on Thursday, October 22.

On Friday, October 23, APU held a special welcome reception to greet these students, who are the first group of new international students to arrive on campus since the state of emergency was lifted in May. At the reception, Vice-President Kenji YOKOYAMA welcomed the students, saying, "We are very happy and grateful to see you here. You survived a long quarantine after arriving, and made it here to APU."

As of October 1, the Japanese government has once again begun permitting entry for new students arriving to Japan on student visas. We expect that new APU students who have been waiting for permission to travel to Japan will gradually start arriving. Here at APU we are doing all that we can to support these new international students arriving to Japan. We are also publishing student guidelines for preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus and working hard to prevent infections. Please see here for information on the efforts being made to prevent infections.