Teaching English In Japan - The Shape Of Things To Come

Are you considering coming to Japan to teach? Are you excited by the idea of living in foreign country where the culture and language are far different from those in your own home country? If so, things are going to be more difficult for you now than they were for people just a few months ago. The reason? Japan’s largest employer of foreign English teachers tanked last week. The once mighty eikaiwa giant, NOVA is now just a shadow of its former self. Sure, a sponsor has stepped up and plans to resume limited operations at 30 schools for the time being, but the company that employed over 4,000 foreign instructors last month doesn’t appear to be able to maintain 1/30th of that workforce anymore (NOVA operated over 900 schools earlier this year).

There are out-of-work NOVA instructors who are taking part in a will-teach-for-food campaign organized by the NOVA Union. Others are relying on various forms of charity in order to remain in Japan. Many foreign instructors at other eikaiwa schools have expressed how ashamed they are to be associated with the industry that once employed this shameless lot. Any way you look at it, getting an entry-level teaching job in Japan right now is tough.

This Japan times article, Nova failure: Can teachers recoup lost pay, keep jobs? gives some telling information regarding the current English instructor job situation in Japan:

Will it be difficult to get a job at another language school if I can’t speak Japanese?

According to the employment assistance center, this may be the case. Most Nova teachers have a one-year work visa for a Specialist in Humanities/International Services.

Most jobs available in this category, including English-teaching jobs, require a certain level of Japanese skill, some qualifications or other special skills, the center said.

The Shinjuku job office thus generally recommends that Nova teachers who cannot speak Japanese consider returning to their home countries for the moment because their visas could expire before they can find a new job in Japan.

The last part in italics could be interpreted as 外人がちゃんとビザを持ってるのに、仕事もないし、お金もないし、ということは嫌です。Japanese for ‘foreigners having work visas, but no jobs or money = bad’

But, English language teaching (ELT) still has a future in Japan, and those of you who are keen on coming over here to live and work as English teachers, don’t give up hope. Now may not be the best time to find a good entry-level job here in Japan, but early next year, the annual peak hiring season will begin and there will be many more opportunities than there are now, particularly for people who want to work as ALTs.

The following was taken from my ‘Entry-level Teaching Jobs in Japan’ page:

Entry-level Teaching Jobs in Japan

There are several types of entry-level EFL (English as a foreign language) teaching jobs in Japan. For those who have a bachelor’s degree (in any field) there are opportunites with many different eikaiwa (英会話 - English conversation) school companies. The big 4  3 in this field are NOVA, GEOS, AEON, and ECC. For those interested in teaching in Japan’s public schools as an ALT (assistant language teacher), there’s the JET programme, which is a government-sponsored program, and there are several ALT employement agencies. The most well-known of the ALT employment agencies is Interac.

There are direct-hire teaching jobs in some of Japan’s public schools. The positions are usually either teacher positions or ALT positions. Getting a direct-hire teaching job without having previous experience teaching in Japan is not the norm. There are teaching jobs at universities, but a master’s degree or better is usually required. International schools also hire foreign teachers, but the most reputable reportedly only hire those with teaching certificates, whether received in Japan or in the foreigner’s home country.

Descriptions of Work 

Eikaiwa teaching usually consists of a foreign teacher working at an eikaiwa school branch, teaching between 1 and 8 classes per workday. Of course, workloads vary from company to company, and from school branch to school branch. Work schedules are often from early afternoon until night. 1pm to 9pm is a good example. Classes usually consist of 1 - 10 students. Often, pre-written lessons are taught and the foreign teachers are mostly there to facilitate speaking and conversations. Some of these schools have grammar-focused classes as well as classes that teach conversation structures. Other schools have “free talk” classes.  Students can range from very young children to adults (there are quite a few senior citizens). Students study English at these conversation schools for various reasons. Some wish to pass certain exams, like the EIKEN, TOEIC, or TOEFL tests. Some study English as a hobby.

The standard salary for an eikaiwa school teacher is around ￥250,000 per month. The big 4 3 eikaiwa companies provide foreign teachers with an apartment, either single or shared. These companies take care of the start-up costs associated with the apartments and the teacher just pays the rent. Smaller eikaiwa school companies may require the foreign teacher to pay the apartment up front costs, which may include a security deposit as well as something called key money (a non-refundable deposit seen generally as a gift to the landlord). The big 4 3 eikaiwa companies sponsor work visas for foreign teachers and usually hire teachers from outside Japan.

ALT work is usually done in Japanese public schools. ALTs team teach with JTEs (Japanese Teachers of English) at the junior and high school levels, but are often solo at elementary schools. At the junior and high school levels, the ALT is sometimes used solely as a “human tape player”, just engaging the students in “listen and repeat” drills. Other times the ALT is asked by the JTE to create and lead exercises to put learned English into practice. Many ALTs spend a lot of time participating in international exchange outside the classroom and are commonly thought of as ambassodors of their respective countries. Salaries for ALTs with the JET programme are a bit higher than those for ALTs with employment agencies like Interac (~￥250,000).

Click here for GaijinPot’s job page

For all of the big 4 3 eikaiwa companies, NOVA, GEOS, AEON, and ECC, you can apply online. An internet search with keywords that include the company name, “teaching”, and “Japan” will lead you the homepage of the company you’re looking for. NOVA and AEON can also be found on GaijinPot.com. You may also be required to submit a resume and a short essay about why you want to work in Japan. For ALT jobs with employment agencies, you can find information and company links at GaijinPot.com. For the JET programme, go directly to the JET homepage for information.

Good luck!