Five students from Bihar will travel to Japan in November for a week-long study tour and see Japanese expertise in software technology and the automobile sector up front.

Yuji Nishikawa, the India liaison representative to Japan Science and Technology Agency, handed over the invitation letters to the students on Friday. The five, including two from Super 30, have been selected after two rounds of written tests conducted by the coaching institute run by mathematician Anand Kumar.

The students selected are Ujjwal Priyank and Siddhant Mohan, Class X students of St Michael's High School, Patna, Subham Raj, a Class XII student from Earth Public School, Punpun, Aman Nasim, Class X student from Loyola High School, Patna, and Aditya Prakash, a Class X student from Central Hindu Boys School, Varanasi. Ujjwal and Subham are from Super 30.

The tour, revolving around Tokyo, from November 6-13 will be free of cost for the students, as the Japan government will bear all their expenses.

As part of the study tour programme, the students will visit University of Tokyo and meet scientists from Japan. They will also have the opportunity to interact with Japanese chemist and winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize for chemistry Hideki Shirakawa.

Super 30 founder Anand said: "It is a big opportunity for the students to visit Japan and learn the scientific innovations of the Japanese. To select the students, Super 30 organised a written test on August 28. These five were selected after two rounds of tests."

Though Nishikawa refused to share the cost of the study tour, it is estimated that the Japan government will bear Rs 4 lakh for each of the students participating in the programme.

"From all over the India, 100 students will visit Japan for the study tour," he said. "The Union ministry of human resource development selected 60 of the students while for the rest academics and universities helped us in the selection process."

In Bihar, Yuji said, Anand was picked to select students for the study tour because of his pioneering work with Super 30, his IIT entrance coaching institute in Patna where he coaches students for free.

"It is a great opportunity for students like me. We will learn about Japanese work in software technology and the automobiles sector," saidUjjwal. "Japan is much ahead of other Asian countries in the field of electronics and automobile sectors."

Subham said: "My dream is to crack the IIT entrance exam and later pursue research work. So, this visit will be a great learning opportunity for me. I will get an opportunity to know about Japanese research work."