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Japanese Maritime Officer Candidate School

The first segment of LSAP-Japan is a study trip to the Japanese Maritime Officer Candidate School (JMOCS) on the historic island of Eta Jima, Japan. At JMOCS, midshipmen live in school dormitories with Japanese midshipmen, observe their classes and training, and participate in cultural events including martial arts (Judo, Kendo), tea ceremony, museum visits, and day trips to Hiroshima and Miyajima. For the final segment of LSAP-Japan, midshipmen live with families of active and retired Japan Maritime Self-Defense officers. Between immersion in Japanese military and home environments through the JMOCS and home-stay, LSAP participants travel to historical and cultural points of interest in Nagasaki, Kyoto, Tokyo, and Yokosuka.

Japanese Civilian Institution Program

In LSAP-CI (Japan), midshipmen attend intensive language study courses at Coto College in Kumamoto, Japan. They are in the classroom 4-5 hours per day and are engaged in knowledge application and cultural familiarization activities at nights and on weekends. They attend class with students from non-English speaking Asian countries like China, Bangladesh, Korea, Vietnam, and so forth. Their classmates are participating in either a 12-month or 18-month program aimed at preparing non- Japanese speakers to attend Japanese universities or other higher education institutions.

Cultural and knowledge application activities include scheduled events such as meetings with students from the top local high school and politicians from city and prefectural councils in the area as well as less formal meetings with real people in real situations that cause them to apply their newfound language capabilities. Weekends provide a break from formal classrooms, but the learning continues with immersion visits to surrounding cities and locations of significance.