Growth takes time. Maplopers embrace the effort. Here’s what they sign up for:

Course duration: 10 weeks

Your weekly commitment: 5-7 hours (10-12 if you’re a go-getter)

Your weekly tasks in a nutshell:

1. Review video modules (5-6 per week), study lesson worksheets, and complete the online quizzes. (Most video modules are less than five minutes in length.)
2. Complete workbook assignments and submit for review.
3. Receive feedback on your workbook assignments.
4. Shadow with the audio immersion pack and practice with the Anki decks at your own leisure. Public transport is your best friend when it comes to this!
5. Participate to some degree on our private Discord server.

Main Schedule

Monday—Sunday:

• Work at your own pace to complete the lesson modules and worksheets for that week

Sunday:

• Weekly assignments due at 11:59 PM in your time zone

Additional information:

It’s important to know Maplopo programs are designed for professionals like you who are working full time. This means everyone has a busy schedule. Still, we make the time. Maplopo offers as intense a program as you would expect. Commitments beget results that change lives. Make the commitment, show up, and win on all fronts.

In the closing weeks and months of your program, you will take part in five live group sessions held almost entirely in Japanese. These sessions are run like a “writer’s room” where one or two learners occupy a “hot seat” going over a writing asssignment of their choice. This enables everyone to get used to thinking and engaging in Japanese on the fly. Calls are fun, smiles abound, and it gives us a chance to really get to know one another. Learners love the Lives!

The day and time of these sessions will be determined based on what works best for the group on the whole.

Over the course of your 10 weeks with us you will experience gains in confidence and knowledge that will set you forward for a lifetime.

Designed to capitalize on the best in education, Maplopo’s story-based curriculum is synchronous, asynchronous, immersive, guided, and tactical. It’s designed for the motivated self-learner who also recognizes being part of a team turns growth spurts into growth leaps. In just a short time with your cohort, you’ll find yourself breaking bad habits and cementing new ones that’ll set you further on your current course toward greater fluency and literacy. And, whether you live and work in Japan or rest beyond its shores, all of what you’ll learn and experience within the virtual walls of Maplopo is purpose-built to enrich your life and provide you with actionable Japanese language skills you can kick into motion on day one.

In addition to the curriculum, our Discord community experience will have you forming bonds with people traveling a path similar to yours—friends and colleagues who just may take you to places you cannot yet foresee. And, the best part? Your access to these communities never disappears. As long as you wish to remain part of our universe you’re welcome to participate.

Your story is written anew each and every day.
We look forward to being a part of it in 2025.

For more detailed lesson information, feel free to request a Maplopo course syllabus.

For the 2026 session, individual tuition for JETS remains at the 2025 rate: $1000/¥100,000 depending on your residency. Tuition for all Maplopo programming will rise in 2027.

What does tuition include? For one, lifetime access to all program material within our online platform including all future updates to the course.

Additionally, while enrolled in the course, tuition covers: email access to the Maplopo instructor reviewing your work. You will also participate in five live group sessions at the tail end of the course with your Maplopo instructor and fellow learners.

1. You will need some Japanese. How much? While we serve a mix of students here at Maplopo (our self-paced program can accomodate even relative beginners), for group sessions like this one, you should consider your skills prior to enrolling as existing somewhere within the “intermediate” zone. This will ensure you can participate fully in group sessions, and get the most out of the program on the whole. Learners considered “intermediate” would likely be between B1 and B2 using the The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), or somewhere between Intermediate-High and Advanced-Low levels using the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) measuring system. (ACTFL is the system used by Middlebury). In other words, you should feel comfortable asking and answering questions in Japanese with some sense of fluidity.
2. Language of instruction: Because our primary language for instruction is English, learners will need the ability to understand and communicate in English in order to participate. That said, English does not have to be your first language; some of our most determined and successful learners are, in fact, not native English speakers.
3. Tech: You will need either a laptop, desktop or iPad to participate in the course. A television could work as well—essentially, you’ll need a device with a large screen. Reason being, PDF and video modules are a core component of the program, and mobile phones just don’t cut it for visibility. Trying to view a conjugation module, for example, on a small screen is hardly an enjoyable experience. You will also need access to a printer so you can submit your weekly workbook assignments (all submissions need to be done by hand… not by typing!).

A Maplopo session is a story in and of itself.

Recent transplant to Japan, or have you just returned back home? Work in tech, higher education, finance, the military…, recruiting? Married? Single? Kids?

Maplopers come from all walks of life, and it is this diversity that makes for a great cohort. To join this exclusive bunch, our best bit of advice is to write from the heart, and apply early. Our rolling admissions schedule allows the early bird to get the worm, and helps us plan our support headcount so you’re never in a cohort with more people than makes sense for superior learning.

When one of our founders was in college, an art professor shared an important lesson: “If you see a piece of art you like, buy it…, because, it’s unlikely you’ll ever get a second chance to do so.” Maplopers act on their goals—something we’d imagine stikes a chord with you as well, given you’re here reading about the program.

That said, aside from simply taking the time to fill out the application, here are a few things you might consider when typing out yours:

1. Tell us who you are, not just what you do. Sure, work “forms” us. But, we also want to know what life is like for you outside of work. What’s driving you to make this change in your life at this very moment… have you reached a certain inflection point? Are you building a family? Are you simply working on strengthening your Japanese to enjoy more of what life has to offer you when you get to where you want to be? Are you building something special? Let us know what’s motivating you to be here today—especially if you’ve been on this page before, and are now ready to move past your hesitation in applying.
2. Be creative. Want to weave your application into a story? Go for it. Want to link to a video, or something else that shows a side of you not so easily captured on paper? Feel free. The point with the application is to show your spirit, your gumption. Tell us why you’re willing to start, and more importantly why you’re willing to finish.
3. Learning with Maplopo is an investment in your future. It will require sacrifice. It will require a 10-week time commitment and a certain financial expenditure. Your returns, however, will be immediate as well as slow… and always compounding. You will absolutely get out of it what you put into it. And, you will not be the only person who benefits. Achievement spreads; your classmates will benefit, your instructor will benefit, your loved ones will benefit… everyone wins when we all show up. So in your essays here, tell us about that. Tell us why and how you’re going to move around your already busy schedule to make this program work for you. What will you juggle? What will you put on pause? What will you have to do to zero in on this goal? If you need to get buy-in from someone else before applying, maybe, tell us how that went, or how it will go after clicking “submit.” Successful Maplopers clue others in on their journey… who will you tell first? Onward. And, good luck!

If you have a specific question we haven’t covered within the F.A.Q., or elsewhere on the site, please do reach out at: [email protected] You can also schedule a call with a member of our team.