Liu worked his way through high school, and in 1932, he applied for a Chinese Indemnity Scholarship as an Overseas Chinese to study electrical engineering at Tokyo's National Railway Technical College, which served as a launching pad into a career in the field.
高中時，就靠自己打工過活的劉其偉，一九三二年以華僑身份考取庚子賠款獎學金的日本東京鐵道局教習所的電器科，從此踏進機械量尺的工程天地。