Is it worth going to university in Japan?

I'm from an Asian third world country and am not too keen on sticking around here for college, but most Western universities have really expensive tuition and the ones that offer financial aid are ridiculously selective. Japan seems to be a better option than staying here and has pretty cheap tuition, but every thread about unis in Japan seems to be echoing the same "4 years of partying", "life's spring break", "degree useless outside Japan" thing. I feel like this is geared more towards people from, say, the US, who are looking to go to Japan but I'm not entirely sure. Are Japanese universities actually just objectively bad or just bad when compared to other first world countries like the US or UK?

Just to clarify, I'm talking about mechanical engineering courses in English at Japanese universities (Kyushu, Nagoya, waseda and Tohoku because I missed the deadline for the others lol).

I cannot answer your question about quality of university in Japan, but if you are not specially interested in Japan, why not look for a EU country where university is actually free?
Eg Germany:

https://www.daad.de/deutschland/studienangebote/international-programm...

Disclaimer: I am a German engineer and I would say that Germany generally is well respected for their engineers.

There are other Eu countries as well where universities teach in English and tuition is low/free.

In The Netherlands for example a lot of universities just teach in English and no longer the local language. So while in Germany generally university is in German and you only find a few subjects in English in The Netherlands even the local people study often in English (forgetting their mother tongue to a certain degree). Denmark seems to be an other example where a lot of university courses are by default in English.

Just an idea.

LikeBike, thanks for the suggestion I'll look into it :)

I�fm a mechanical engineer born in Japan, but moved to the US in highschool and received an engineering degree from US university. I do not have a first hand experience of university life in Japan. I am aware of the party life reputation of average college students in Japan, but according to my friend who also studied ME in Japan, he says engineering programs in Japan are for serious students only. He claims this is because everything taught in engineering curriculum are new (none were taught in highschool), unlike other majors. That�fs part of the reason why other students can afford to party, because they already learned the same stuff in highschool, cram school, or in preparation for the college entrance exam. As for comparison between Japanese vs. European/American universities, I think that depends on where you want to work after graduation.

Certainly, you don't need to put much effort in a japanese university to graduate, but you can still make the best out of it if you want. It really is your choice.

I would say, if your plan is to stay and work in Japan, then is very valuable to study in a university here as you can do the job hunting activities during your last year like the locals and have good chances to find employment. it doesn't work the same way when you graduate abroad and then apply to companies on an irregular schedule. Most companies here hire new-grads by "generations" and assume that they know nothing, so they have specific training plans to transform them into what they need.

If you plan on going back to your or another less developed country, usually they get wow'ed by the fact that you graduated from a japanese university because they have this image of a highly developed japan and it is assumed that their education system is more advanced and must be doing something better.

Only in the case that your plan is to go to the U.S. or another well developed European country, you might find that japanese universities are not regarded as better or even at the same level as their own universities and you might not have any advantage at all.

BSME, thank you for the input. Makes me feel better if ME courses are pretty rigorous, wouldn't want to feel like I'm wasting my time for 4 years after flying all the way there haha. I'm not entirely sure where I want to work after graduation but it'll most probably be back at home.

depends, at the moment my plan is to do a postgraduate degree after my undergraduate (which is what I was talking about doing in Japan, sorry for not specifying). I would like to get my Master's degree from a western college, and I've been told that your grades, letters of recommendation and things like extra curricular activites matter more than the prestige of your undergraduate university. How far is this true? I don't expect my college to give me a boost for my applications, I just don't want it to be a handicap.

I am from the Netherlands,
But university fees are pending on the following.

If you are a citizen the fees are cheapest (Every year around 1600 Euro)
If you are an exchange student fees are free if your university has any connection with the university in the Netherlands
If you go as private (going to be alone) you pay the most. I have no idea how much it is. Depends on the university you would like to enter.

For Japan you have almost a similar system.
If you have no exchange program you need to pay more than average.

justmyday, thanks for the info! I've checked tuition fees in Japan and affordability isn't an issue for the public unis, Waseda is a tad on the pricey side but they have some scholarship options which I'll be applying for as well.