General Services

Our alumni is a very special group of individuals making a strong world-wide network. The campus values all of you and wants to develop closer ties with you now that you are out in the world. The staff and faculty have fond memories of you, as you have of them and your fellow classmates. We offer many services to alumni. Here are some highlights:

Documentation

  • Diploma notarized or authenticated or Apostille process – required by some countries or institutiions who do not accept the IUJ Diploma as an official document (Such as Russia, Brazil, Peru, perhaps some in South Korea)
  • IUJ accreditation issue and international association memberships

HomePage

  • Featuring a Japan-leading searchable Online Directory, self profile update page, information on Association leaders, chapter leaders and class representatives, events updates, slide shows, description of general services and how to order transcripts, and much more!

Newsletter

  • Published twice a year in January and July, the IUJ Alumni News newsletter features ClassNotes, featured alumni, campus updates and news, Executive Council activities, and much more. With your contributions (articles and pictures, etc.) we hope to make this a fun and informative publication. Deadlines are the first Friday of December and the first Friday of June each year. Get involved! As of 2010, the July edition is sent by PDF file, and the January edition by regular mail.

Networking

  • Use the searchable online directory to find alumni in your area.
  • Alumni Chapters around the world are forming for social and educational events.
  • Alumni E-mail Mailing Lists – to help you keep in touch with your classmates through E-mail. Use the pattern IR-Class89 <@ mark> iuj.ac.jp or im-class2002 <@ mark> iuj.ac.jp. You MUST send from your Primary Email as registered with campus.
  • Regional Email lists are also helpful to keep those in the same area in easy contact.
  • Regional Gatherings through Chapter activities and around professor and staff visits overseas.

Accommodations – SD1 Rooms and Off Campus Hotels and Inns

    • We are unable to offer Alumni guest housing for their private visits to the area. If you are coming in a professional capacity we may be able to assist – arrangements should be made with the faculty support and reservations.

  • Here is a list of local hotels and onsen to help you make local reservations. We do hope you will come back. Please let us know in advance!

Job Hunt Support

    • Alumni Job Hunter’s mailing service. If you would like to receive employment information by email from IUJ please let us know . When positions come in that are appropriate to our alumni, we will send messages to those on our list.

Obtaining A Certificate of No Criminal Record:

Before reading the detailed description, please note the following;

  1. You must call to make an appointment (in Japanese) before you go to the issuing station in Niigata city to avoid the crowds.
  2. You must prepare a document that confirms that you must have this certificate. That would be a letter, in Japanese, from your embassy stating the reason you need this document
    1. Please note that only those who are required to submit this certificate by a foreign public institution (embassy, immigration, etc.)  can apply. There must be a specific and authorized reason: you cannot request it just for general use or possible future use.
  3. It takes a week to 10 days to be issued and you must go back to get it in person.

Please note that there are a few more items you need to prepare and take with you.

Not to waste your time and money, please make sure what steps you need to take from the website below. (Japanese only)

https://www.pref.niigata.lg.jp/site/kenkei/tetuzuki-policecertificate-index.html

To obtain the Certificate of No Crime Record “Muhanzai Shomeisho” you need to do one of the following:

1) From within Japan:
Go to the Niigata Police Headquarters, located next to the Prefectural Government Building in Niigata City, and request the document. You need your

  • passport,
  • residence card,
  • certificate of residents card (available at city office),
  • and a overseas ticket or ticket receipt to show you are departing the country.
  • A letter from an official public institution (embassy) stating you must have this document

Some countries also must contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ask for their consideration and support. These countries are those where the Niigata police office has few reference points – not too many of your nationality in the country. To learn if your country is one of those, please call the Niigata office at 025-285-0110.  If you need to contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for their guidance, please call 03-3580-3311 and ask for extension 2308.  This procedure can take one month!

2) For those OUTSIDE of Japan
Go to the Japanese Embassy nearest you to request the certificate and submit or show the necessary documents. You need to state when you were at IUJ. This process takes about 3 months as they request the Niigata Police HQ for the information on your behalf.

Notarizing your Diploma

We highly recommend that you check with your Embassy in Japan to ensure that the IUJ Diploma is accepted as an official document in your home country. Do this BEFORE you leave Japan. If it is not accepted you need to find out what your country requires in order for it to be so. Most likely you will need to go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to receive the notarization and then to your home embassy to confirm that notarization and ensure your country will accept the document. You need to do this within 3 months of graduation to expedite the process. We know that Brazil, Peru and Russia require the extra notarization.

Getting the Diploma notarized when you are outside of Japan is very difficult. The procedure also varies from country to country making it very difficult for IUJ to provide you with accurate information and instructions. The first thing you need to do is seek out the help from the Japanese Embassy in your country and confirm the procedure you must take.

Below is one example of the steps taken by one Alumni, provided as an example. Your case may be different, so we urge you to contact your Embassy while in Japan.

One – send IUJ your diploma so IUJ can prepare a document that your diploma is THE original, and get the President’s sign and stamp – official ones of IUJ. This is needed because the diploma should not be more than 3 months past the issuing date in order to get notarized, but with the president’s stamp the issuing date gets updated.

TWO – Choose a friend in Japan and provide him/her a letter stating you allow them to act as your proxy.

THREE – Get that friend IN JAPAN to go to the the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here on your behalf, with your proxy letter, diploma and IUJ support letter and ask for the notarization. They will need to pay the notarization fee.

FOUR – Get that friend to go to the your home country embassy HERE in Japan for their approval of the stamp

FIVE – The friend sends it to you.

BUT, again, before you do anything, go to the Embassy of your home country in Japan, or the Japanese embassy in your home country and ask for their assistance and instructions.

Apostille Process

Because IUJ is a private university, MOFA cannot give you an apostille directly, but the Legal Affairs Bureau (LAB, Ko-sho Yakuba) can. LAB in Tokyo, Kanagawa and Osaka can provide it very quickly. They have a one-stop-service.
Note 3: One-Stop-Service
The following is the contact information of notary public’s office in Tokyo
NIPPON KOSHONIN RENGOKAI
Japan National Notaries Association
Daido Life Insurance Kasumigaseki Bld., 5F
4-2 Kasumigaseki 1-chome,
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0013
Japan
Phone: 03-3502-8050 (Domestic) +81-3-3502-8050 (International)
Fax: 03-3508-4071 (Domestic) +81-3-3508-4071 (International)

Info an IUJ’s Accreditation status, and International Association memberships

IUJ is chartered by the Mombukagakusho, the Japanese Government’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology – MEXT and operates under their guidelines as a fully recognized Japanese university (Information in Japanese only by MEXT). Within this framework IUJ is reviewed and accredited by JIHEE. For information please follow this link

Further recognition is by NIC Japan, National information Center for Academic Recognition of Japan.

GSIM Association Membership
IUJ’s Graduate School of International Management is a member AACSB: Association to Advance Collegiate School of Business, and received fully accredited status in Winter 2018. (AACSB is a “specialized” accreditation agencies based in the USA that carries out accreditation internationally, and is very well respected). Details on the IUJ Website are noted here.

GSIR Association Membership
IUJ-GSIR is an affiliate member of the APSIA: Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs. But this is not an accreditation agency. IUJ is unaware of an international agency which accredits schools of international relations.

Clarification on IUJ’s status in the USA
IUJ is not accredited by the US accreditation agencies recognized by the US Department of Education because it is not a US school. An accreditation system functions within a specific country, i.e., US accreditation agencies accredit US schools under the US legal authority. The database of the US Department of Education does not list schools outside of the USA. As IUJ is not a US school, it therefore does not appear on this listing. If US citizens needs to have their overseas degree recognized, they can use a commercial evaluation service. Information here:

IUJ has many exchange partners with graduate schools around the world with whom we mutually and actively exchange of students and academic credits. A list of these Exchange Partner schools is available at GSIM and GRIR. It could provide evidence of IUJ’s comparative status as exchange programs are entered into only by equal partners.

More Information 

Further rankings and international recognition is noted here.