If you plan to enter Japan by A Hoshiki or C Hoshiki, first you have to be admitted by the schools in Japan. After being admitted, you need to apply for certification of eligibility as ?epre-college?f or ?ecollegee?f status. Then go to the Japanese embassy in your homeland to apply for the visa for entering Japan.
On the other hand, in the case of coming to Japan to take examination by B Hoshiki, you should apply for short term visa with an admission ticket to an examination. After taking examination in Japan, return to homeland to wait for the examination result. If admitted, please follow the procedure to apply for visa showed above. ( the same with entering Japan by A or C Hoshiki). In the case of coming to Japan to take examination with the short term visa, if the result of examination had been informed to you during the period you stay in Japan, you could go to Immigration Bureau of Japan to change your status of residence, then study in Japan continuously.

There are two certification of eligibility for studying in Japan, which are called ?ecollege student?f status and ?eprecollege student?f status. Certification of eligibility will be decided by the course or school you are going to enter.

?〉 School/course provide college student status of residence visa
Vocational school, college, undergraduate course or graduate school of university, and preparing course in Japanese language school

?〉 School/course provide precollege student status of residence visa
Japanese language schools or courses not mentioned above Even in the same language school, students in preparing course are in the status of college school while students outside preparing course are in the status of precollege school.

Term of residence for those with ?ecollege student?f visa is one year or two.
Term of residence for those with ?eprecollege student?f visa is one year or six months.
It will be inconvenient for those with six months term of residence to enter one year long Japanese language course. Therefore, make confirmation that you could get one year long term of residence of precollege student visa in order to enter one year course of Japanese study.

After receiving admission, you must follow the procedures to apply for a Certificate of Eligibility from immigration authorities in Japan. A Certificate of Eligibility is issued before a visa application by a regional immigration authority under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice. If you are not in Japan, you have to ask friends, relatives or other people in Japan to complete this procedure.
Japanese language school and vocational school complete this procedures for students they accepted.
Please be careful that some college or undergraduate course and graduate school of university do not apply for Certificate of Eligibility for students they accepted. Therefore, in these cases, you have ask people who you know in Japan to do this for you. However, if you do not have any acquaintances in Japan to resort to, you should ask a favor of the school you are going to enter to do this for you.
It cost two months to apply for Certificate of Eligibility of ?ecollege student?f visa while it cost three months for those applying for ?eprecollege student?f visa. After receiving Certificate of Eligibility from the proxy, you should go to Japanese embassy in your homeland to apply for ?ecollege student?f visa or ?eprecollege student?f visa.

Two things will be inspected when immigration authority issue Certificate of Eligibility.

whether got Admission or not
Immigration authority will inspect graduate certificate of the latest school you entered in your homeland and admission issued by schools you will enter in Japan.

Whether have been prepared for the money which covers tuition and living expense Immigration authority will inspect certificate of bank balance and income.

In fact, because of papers incompleteness, Ceritificate of Eligibility will not be issued if you really have enough money to cover the expense for studying in Japan. No one could study in Japan without being issued this Certidicate of Eligibility.
Same inspection will be made when you apply for visa even you got this Certificate of Eligibility. In some countries, interview will be made. Official in embassy will test your Japanese ability and ask you information about the latest school you graduated from, besides, they will look over your financial situation. If visa has not been issued, it is impossible for you to study in Japan even with the admission sent by universities. Then you have to next entrance chance

The procedure you should take in order to come to Japan after being accepted will be showed in the graph showed below. Please read it as a reference.

When you want to do part time job in Japan with ?ecollege student?f visa or ?eprecollege student?f visa, you have to apply for ?eShikakugaikatudoukyokasho?f, which permits you to do part-time job after class. The length of the part-time job you do depend on the type of your visa. Students with ?ecollege?f visa could do part-time job 28hours a week and eight hours one day during vocations time. On the other hand, students with ?epre-college?f visa could not do part-time job over four hours a day.
If students with ?ecollege student?f visa or ?eprecollege student?f visa want to return to homeland during the term of their residence, they should take procedure to apply for ?ere-entry permission?f, which permit them departure and re-entry freely.
Otherwise, students who studied in Japanese language school or undergraduate course over one year or two years, should apply for the permission to extend term of residence. These procedures should be taken in immigration authority near the city you live.