So, let me start off by saying that this is my personal opinion and my personal experience and everyone has their own experiences with this company both good and bad.
Unfortunately, my experience was bad. why was it so bad? Because it’s a scam!! Now I was one of the individuals that was seeing the world through rose tinted lenses. I saved enough money. I knew that it was both good and bad reviews with the company, but I seen this as an opportunity to get my “foot in the door” and decided to just go with it.
Well, maybe one week before departure date I was told that I was not going to get paid for 2 months (my first paycheck was January 20, when I started November 10) that was quite a shock to me because I wouldn’t have known if I didn’t ask a certain question which prompt the manager? To tell me that my first paycheck wouldn’t come until January 20. Also, my position was a driving position. Basically they will rent me a car and I would have to drive to work, I didn’t quite see it as a bad thing because where I’m from I’m used to driving, so I took this as an opportunity to travel and see my area a bit more. Before taking the driving position, I asked the obvious question. Do I have to pay for this car?? I was told that I would get an allowance that WILL PAY FOR MY CAR, but I was soon to find out that it was an allowance to pay for not even half of what my car payment was. (about 24,000 yen)
Still, my optimism didn’t fall I had to look at the brighter side of things because at this point, I am in Japan and I have no other choice. Once I arrived, I was in a small little city in Ibaraki. The city was fine. The people were polite, and my school was amazing! The staff and the students were , absolutely amazing!! I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better school because they were so welcoming and friendly with me.
Now I won’t make this post too long, but I need everyone to realize that when you work for these companies, you are in a revolving door. You are just an extra person. I know Reddit will tell you both good and bad reviews on all companies, which they should! But if you do not come to this country with so much money or if you come to this country living on a hope and a dream you will not last long.
I want to let the people that are coming to Japan know that taxes exist!! You have to pay taxes, you have to pay insurance. Please factor in those when thinking of living in Japan to be honest, like I stated previously, I was very optimistic and seeing you rose tinted glasses. I did not factor and how much taxes can be and how much insurance can be per month and how much my company will take from me per month.
This post is not to discourage anyone from coming to Japan AT ALL!! I love Japan! And I will return to Japan. This experience was amazing because although I had to adjust to my new surroundings, school and staff and students it a great experience, although my company was shit!
I plan to apply with the jet program again and now that I have experience teaching abroad, I may get accepted, or I might try the epic program with South Korea.
This post is just to those individuals that are too optimistic or not asking the right questions to these companies like Interac, Nova, BorderLink. Ask them about insurance, ask them about taxes ask them about cost-of-living space. Ask them these questions. I looked online to see the average cost of apartments in my prefecture because unfortunately, I didn’t know what city I was going to be in and then when I found out my city, my cost of rent should have been around $30,000-$50,000 yen (I lived in a rural-ish area) and my rent was $70,000.
Anyways, I will cut this post short and end this by saying Japan was amazing and although my company sucked, it did not discourage me from not wanting to go back to the country and experiencing it again. It has shown me, with that I need to ask better questions and get straight answers with my questions as well as doing further research before jumping into a new company.
by CauseOk420