Applying for scholarship with prospective advisor support, but not taking the scholarship: possible consequences I am planning to apply for a (quite competitive) scholarship offered by a foreign government, which I need the recommendation of a prospective doctoral advisor to apply. However, if I am offered the scholarship but decline it for opportunities in other countries, would I offend anyone? Are there alternatives should I decide later not to pursue a PhD there?

In fact, I'll give it off: I'm going to apply for the Japanese government's MEXT scholarship. Now, while I really enjoy living in Japan (having lived there briefly in the past) and can find good doctoral advisors there, I am not sure if that is in my best interest, as I would prefer to pursue a career in Europe due to personal and family reasons, and doing a PhD in Europe would be better for my goals. Also, if anyone is familiar with the MEXT scholarships, I wonder if there are alternatives: e.g. use my scholarship to study as a research visitor student (kenkyuusei) instead, etc.
If you have a definitive plan in Europe, then there is no problem rejecting the opportunity in Japan, it should be ok as long as everyone gets notified. The advisor may be get annoyed briefly, but they will soon not think about it (especially famous professors) as they have many things on their mind.

I am actually in a similar position right now in which I might decline a potential JSPS fellowship.