College-bound students in Japan undergo a process of intense preparation known as "examination hell." An extreme manifestation of "examination hell" is the "ronin" phenomenon. Typically 30% of students choose the "ronin" option under which they spend years in addition to high school preparing for the next year's college entrance examinations. Using the mean scores of the entrance examinations as a measure of college quality, I find that college quality significantly improves the internal rate of return (IRR) to college education among the sample of male graduates in Japan. "Ronin" increases earnings indirectly by improving the quality of the college attended. I also show that the "IRR" with respect to "ronin" is one of diminishing returns. On average, the number of "ronin" years which maximizes the "IRR" is found to be somewhere between 1 and 2 years.