An explanatory session was held on October 26th and 30th to assist incoming and current students in applying for credit cards from Japanese banks.

 With the current amount of online shopping, reservations and other transactions that take place daily, a credit card has become a basic necessity for doing almost anything. Incoming students find they need a credit card for different payments and current students come to need a credit card to arrange for their trips to conferences, etc. While there are many banks offering credit cards, the applications are written in Japanese and can often be confusing.

 The Center for International Students and Scholars (CISS), with the support of the International Student Affairs Section and the Division for Global Education, organized this session as part of its mission to offer support to international students as the pursue their studies. The sessions opened with a brief explanation of credit cards, debit cards, and their different uses by Robert King, CISS Advisor/Coordinator, and then students filled out their applications with the help of the staff.

 With a total of roughly 40 new and current students that attended, both sessions were busy with the staff fielding questions from the students and students doing their best to fill in their applications using Japanese and English. We hope to hold this session again in the spring for those students who couldn't participate this time and the new students then.