A Guide to Teaching English in Japan
by Michael Chan
Page 3
Getting a job arranged before arrival
A lot of teachers come to Japan this way. The 'Big 3' are the chain schools Nova,
Aeon, and Geos. They are big in the sense that they have branches all over
Japan. Their schools can be found in every major city and town (Aeon, for example, has over
350 schools in Japan), and each school may have from 50 to 5,000 students. They have a lot
of students because their brand exposure is very high, and the Japanese tend to trust large
companies.
There are smaller chain schools such as Shane, ECC, Berlitz, YMCA, and Britannica.
Except Shane, they usually recruit their teachers within Japan (quite a number of their
positions are usually filled by ex-Nova, ex-Aeon, or ex-Geos teachers!) For many teachers,
the 'Big 3' is a start point from which they could move on to other possibilities once they
have settled in Japan.
Further Reference
Schools that recruit outside Japan:
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Nova
Nova has offices in England, Canada, US, Australia, and New Zealand.
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Shane
Saxoncourt is a teacher placement agency based in England, and recruits
British teachers for Shane English Schools in Japan.
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Aeon
Aeon has offices in the US (Chicago, New York, Los Angeles). It also
has an office in Sydney, Australia.
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Geos
Geos has offices in Canada and England. Geos recruits only from overseas.
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Some of the common characteristics of the schools with overseas offices are:
* They arrange the flight over to Japan. Teachers usually arrive in groups.
* They provide furnished accommodation and pay for any necessary house deposits.
* They provide teacher training but of the OJT type (on the job training). It is
not unusual for a teacher to be given a full schedule after one week of training.
* They give at least 10-days paid vacation.
A five-day working week with 2 consecutive days off is the norm. It is unusual for
teachers to have split days off.
The JET Program
According to the JET Program information page on a Japanese government Web site, the
aim of the JET Program is: "&... to promote internationalization at the
local level by inviting young overseas graduates to assist in international exchange
and foreign language instruction in local governments, boards of education and junior
and senior high schools throughout Japan. It aims to foster ties between Japanese
citizens (mainly youth) and JET participants at the person to person level."
The majority of JET participants are hired as ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers).
The word ‘Assistant’ is very important because, in most cases, native
speakers have to team-teach with Japanese teachers. The conditions of the program
look very good on paper: an annual salary of 3.6 million yen a year (US$30,000+), a
35-hour work week, and having everything prepared from the flight to the place of work.
Participants can only stay on the program for a maximum of three years, but they are
free to look for other jobs should they decide to continue teaching in Japan. There
are currently over 5,800 ALTs on the program.
(Editor's note: The education ministry announced in mid-2002 plans to increase the number of AET's to
around 11,500 and start allowing in the region of 1,000 non-Japanese to work as
full-time teachers, rather than assistants; these and other changes to be implemented
over the following few years)
Further Reference
The JET Program - Ministry of Foreign Affairs
(MOFA) Web site
Council of Local Authorities for International relations
(CLAIR) Web site
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It is reported that the combined annual turnover of NOVA
and ECC alone is around US$500,000,000 a year.
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Working at the Conversation Schools
The 'Big 3' chain schools may pay less in terms of yen per hour worked, but they usually
provide very good benefits (e.g. visa sponsorship, flight arrangements to Japan, paid
housing deposits, and affordable health insurance). A typical work day could be 5-8 hours,
with 20-40 classes a week. Since these organisations are huge, there are also opportunities
for the ambitious to work up the career ladder (e.g. teacher trainer and head teacher
positions), which brings additional pay and benefits. The smaller schools such as
Britannica pay less, but the work load is lower with about 10-20 classes a week.
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Teaching business classes is a good way for teachers with
free time to earn more money. The paid rate per hour is usually higher than
conversation schools.
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Company Classes
Company lessons are usually provided in two ways. The larger companies have their own
in-house teachers. These positions are rarely advertised and are usually filled by personal
recommendation. Most companies use outside agencies which procure for company contracts.
A lot of these agencies are located in Tokyo and the competition for contracts is high.
These agencies are the ones that advertise for teachers (usually as ‘language
consultants’), as opposed to the companies themselves. Each agency will have a few
full time teachers or co-ordinators, though teachers are usually hired on a course-by-course
basis. An example course could be one 90-minute lesson a week for 10 weeks, or two lessons
a week for 6 months. These courses are usually paid by the hour. Many conversation school
teachers supplement their regular hours with some evening hours teaching business classes.
Unlike conversational schools, agencies do expect some their teachers to have teaching
experience or qualifications. These agencies rarely advertise abroad as there is already a
large pool of teachers in Japan who want to work more hours.
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Being addressed as 'Sensei' is perhaps a big motivation
for working in high schools!
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Teaching at High Schools
Teachers working full time in the high school system have a lot of advantages. They work
in the same location (like conversation schools), yet may get a higher salary. High school
classes in Japan start from 8-9am to 4-5pm. The teacher would usually teach 4-6 hours a day,
with 1-2 hour's preparation time. Holidays are long, including all national and school
holidays. What's the downside? A Japanese environment may entail some communication problems.
What the teacher thinks is a good idea may not be considered a good idea for others. Class
sizes tend to be higher compared to Western classes (30-40), so maintaining student attention
could be a challenge. Teaching times may be lower compared to chain schools but a high school
teacher's duty usually goes beyond the classroom. This could include test preparation and
marking, school trips and excursions and other out-of-classroom duties related to the school.
The JET Program is a big employer of native speakers for high schools. It hires several
thousand a year from various countries.
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According to Japanese government figures for 1999, the
average salary for a male worker is 450,000 yen per month. It is 250,000 for
female workers.
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Salary Expectations
These figures were complied from teaching job classifieds in Japan from various
sources such as the Internet and newspapers. The numbers are intended only to give
a general indication of the range of salaries that are being offered:
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Hours / Week
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Monthly Salary (Yen)
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Hourly Rate (Yen)
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The 'Big 3' Conversation Schools
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35 - 40
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290,000 - 320,000
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2,000 - 3,000
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Small/medium-sized conversational schools
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20 - 25
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240,000 - 270,000
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2,000 - 3,000
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Company classes
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15 - 25
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300,000 - 350,000
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3,500 - 5,500
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High school classes
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20 - 30
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250,000 - 400,000
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3,000 - 6,000
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Further Reference
Check the Lloyds
TSB Bank site to see current yen rates.
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