The IATSS Forum brings young professionals from ten Asian countries to Japan for eight weeks of leadership training, group work and field study. It is run by the International Association of Traffic and Safety Sciences, a Japanese research body founded in 1974 through an endowment from Honda Motor and its two founders, Soichiro Honda and Takeo Fujisawa. Participants come from Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, and all of them hold full-time professional jobs at home. The programme is based in Suzuka and Yokkaichi in Mie Prefecture, with study visits to Tokyo, Iwate, Miyagi, Tochigi and elsewhere. The curriculum moves through four stages the organisers call Sharing Empathy, Concept Making, Model Making and Implementation, and covers seminars, team building, facilitation and systems-thinking skills, environmental study, disaster reconstruction and preparedness, and sustainable urban design. Two sessions run each year and participants return to their own workplaces afterwards to apply what they built.
Benefits & funding
- Round-trip international airfare between the participant’s country and Japan.
- All programme participation fees.
- Accommodation for the full eight weeks.
- Almost all food expenses during the programme.
- Domestic study visits across several Japanese prefectures as part of the curriculum.
- Forty places for 2027, twenty in each of the two sessions; two to five people are selected per country.
- What the participant pays: personal expenses and part of their food costs. IATSS publishes no allowance figure.
Eligibility
- Nationality of one of ten countries: Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand or Vietnam.
- Aged 35 or younger on the application closing date.
- Currently a full-time employee in a professional field. Self-employed and freelance workers count. Students are not eligible unless they also work full time.
- At least two years of full-time professional work experience.
- English good enough to study and live abroad, plus the cultural adaptability to do so. No minimum test score is set and a proficiency certificate is optional.
- The physical and mental capability to take part fully without an accompanying person. IATSS states that it aims to include people with mental and physical disabilities, and notes the programme involves site visits and day trips.
- No degree requirement is published.
- All application documents must be written in English.
- Full attendance for the whole eight weeks is required; partial participation is not allowed.
Can you apply?
Worth a closer look
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Eligible nationalities
Cambodia · India · Indonesia · Laos · Malaysia · Myanmar · Philippines · Singapore · Thailand · Vietnam
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Experience required
≥ 2 yrs
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Age requirement
≤ 35 yrs
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We only check the criteria we have data for. Always confirm full eligibility on the official page before applying.
Application process
- 1Download the application booklet and forms from the IATSS Forum site and read the admission policy.
- 2Prepare the five documents: the application form, the basic question form, an essay on the set topic, a recommendation form completed by the applicant’s direct supervisor, and a copy of an English proficiency certificate if one is held.
- 3Submit through the Google Form for the applicant’s own country, linked from the application page. Postal submission is possible only after contacting the country secretariat first.
- 4Apply within the window: 1 June to 30 September 2026 for the 2027 sessions. Applications cannot be submitted outside it.
- 5Document screening runs from October to mid-November 2026.
- 6Shortlisted applicants are interviewed between late November and late December 2026. Only shortlisted applicants are contacted about interview times.
- 7Selected participants join either the 71st session from May to July 2027 or the 72nd from September to November 2027.
Program timeline
1 June 2026
Applications open for the 2027 sessions
Application deadline
30 September 2026
Document screening
October to mid-November 2026
Final interviews
Late November to late December 2026
71st IATSS Forum, eight weeks
May to July 2027
72nd IATSS Forum, eight weeks
September to November 2027