Discussion on budget suits for formal occasions.

24 comments

1. I was a high school JET and once in Japan I only ever wore my suit for graduation ceremonies. My suit was my mother’s old suit and when I ripped the skirt on the way to school on my bike (and had lots of Japanese women literally sewing me back into the suit, which was pretty funny), I bought a men’s suit at a Japanese thrift store for about 500 yen (~$5 USD) and everyone loved it said I looked cute.

   Stick with the cheaper suit you have— you’ll be fine. I didn’t see anyone at orientation dressed in very expensive suits. It’s good to have a suit, but a cheap one that fits well is perfectly fine. Don’t spend a lot of money on a suit just for this job. Especially if you plan to bike to school like I did 😂 I know the dress standards are different for men, but even my male co-workers (save the Principal and Vice Principal) only wore suits for graduation ceremonies. The male teachers at my visit elementary school wore track suits and were very casual.

2. People only wear plain black suits to funerals in Japan. You are better off with a blue or grey suit. Or just trousers, shirt + tie + blazer jacket.

3. Personally, I’m not going to buy an overly expensive suit. My cap is $300 including tailoring. Realistically, I don’t believe it’s necessary to drop too much money on a suit for a teaching assistant program.

   What I would say is that the most important factor of a suit be it budget friendly or upscale is just the fit. I’ve seen men wear very upscale suits and look corny because of an improper fit and I’ve seen others wear cheap suits that look great because of a good fit. As long as it fits nicely and doesn’t have some kind of nightmarish pattern or cheap sheer fabric, you’re gonna be A Okay.

4. I think it’s a good idea for anybody to one day buy themselves a well-tailored suit or two for formal occasions.

   JET is not the time to do that. Something black, comfy and cheap is all you need. Any JET with a $400 tailored suit at orientation is gonna look much more out of place than you. A nice suit should be the lowest of your priorities if pre-departure money is tight.

5. Dont worry man! I got a haggard suit too! Going to get it tailored !

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7. It’s honestly great that you’re putting more thought into your professional appearance than the average JET, but honestly, a $50 suit jacket from Uniqlo and whatever black slacks you have will put you ahead of most of your coworkers (Japanese and JET alike) at schools. School attire is about balancing the dress code with comfort and also the fact that teachers aren’t paid big ¥.

8. I teach at ES, which is the lowest bar of formality, and I’m expected to wear a suit for a couple of occasions. Primarily, entrance and graduation ceremonies. You’re also gonna wanna put it on your first days since you’ll be introducing yourself to principals and the staff. So it’s a good piece of clothing to own.

   Also, make sure to bring a plain white tie since it’s customary to wear during the graduation ceremony.

9. Im a HS ALT, and I wear a FULL SUIT for only a few occasions. Graduation, Parent/Teacher day, First day of School, Picture Day…you see where im going with this.

   However, I do wear button ups in the Winter/Sping, and Polos in the Summer/Fall. as soon as May hit here, (I live in Shikoku…30 degrees and 100% humidity) all the teachers started wearing polos.

   invest in some nice shirts and slacks, don’t worry to much about the suit. Your Hagger should be fine.

10. darlin, trust me, very few people at Orientation look put together. No shade, but combination of jetlag, most being in their first “professional” role, and the uncomfortableness of being forced into social situations for two long days… it’s honestly gonna be fine in your Haggard suit.

    Why are you so hung up on the suit and cost? $200 is nothing to turn your nose up at for a suit. Case in point, the two I brought from home cost 180GBP combined. Doesn’t bother me none if anyone clocks they’re from Zara or Next. Cause I look fine.

    Some ALTs continue wearing suits/business wear for their time on JET, but most drop the formality as soon as they can. My predecessor once came back to my school while I was there for graduations looking like a bad extra from a Snoop Dog video… you can have money and zero taste.

    You’ll likely need to wear it on formal occasions, which you should have plenty of time to prepare for. There are photo days usually at the beginning of the school year. My school never told me when these were so in my first year, I was wearing a shabby polo neck and creased slacks (there were no classes that day either). Next year I had a shirt and pair of trousers in my locker for any time they decided to surprise me.

11. > My main concern is showing up to orientation to see most people decked out in a $400+ tailored suit and sticking out like a sore thumb with my budget suit. Probably an irrational concern but curious about your experiences with wearing budget attire to formal events.

    You’ll look smart in a cheap suit at orientation. I’ve got my suits that I wear for work every day (my high schools are like that) which cost me ~£80 or around $100 if I remember rightly… I don’t look great I’m sure, but like you they don’t look terrible either. At orientation, sure there were a couple of people who looked *good* in fancy suits, but equally a lot of people in stuff that I thought was too casual. One guy’s smart clothes was black chinos and a red chequered shirt. Not calling him out, just there was a variance of smartness and he stuck out a little being red so I remembered… There were just as many people in smart casual wear that didn’t include a suit.

    For what it’s worth I’d wear a suit, but don’t feel you need to break the bank, save it for furniture or whatever startup costs you need.

12. Dude.. I saw an American guy wearing a full Scottish Kilt with all the decorations to go with it. He’d never even been to Scotland.

13. I never wore a suit during my entire time in JET. Any formal occasion I just put on a white dress shirt, suit vest, khakis / dress pants and a nice pair of shoes (Allen Edmonds for me, got it on sale). All well fitted and looked sharp, that’s all that matters.

    At schools I just wore the shirt(s) everyone at the BoE wore most of the time.

14. I’m bringing a lot of dress shirts and pants for the daily ALT job, but I’m only bringing my 1 good $500 suit. It’ll work with a lot of different shirt combos and I doubt I’ll end up needing my suit too often. Plus how dirty can a suit get when it’s worn over other layers of clothes and almost exclusively inside? By the time I need to wear it again I’ll have dry cleaned it.

15. Strongly recommend Uniqlo for a suit at a budget that looks spectacular – pretty sure they’ll cuff the pants with a visible stitch free of charge, and an invisible one for a little extra. Not sure about USD but a full suit in yen from there would be ¥15,000 tops

    To add: I’m SHS and have to wear a suit for ceremonies, and also when parents visit the school etc.

16. Don’t worry about the cost.

    Let me start with the typical ESID response. It’s possible you may only need to use the suit when traveling to your placement (maybe), for the start of year opening ceremony, and for graduation. It’s also possible that you end up in a strict place where you would possibly need more than one to wear for regular use.

    In my case, I have worn my suit twice since I came in November. I work at a BOE high school in the inaka. I didn’t have to wear it while traveling on the plane or to my placement (I asked the head of the BOE prior). I only needed it for graduation and for the opening ceremony.

    We have school picture day coming up. My supervisor told me it’s cool biz season. I wear shorts and a T-shirt regularly right now, and he said all I need is to wear a button down (no tie) for the picture and call it good.

    Don’t worry about blowing more money on another suit. No one will be scrutinizing you like that. If you need another one later, you can go to a place like Uniqlo or Aoki (sometimes has coupons).

17. I came to Japan without a suit. I did bring formal trousers and a shirt for my arrival and I was able to buy an all black budget suit here in Japan for less than $100 for the likes of opening ceremony, graduation etc.

18. It’s all good. My group, we had a welcome party at the embassy. They told us a dozen times that since it’s the embassy, you have to dress appropriately and formally. Most of the people there were in T-shirts and shorts.

    I had to wear suits for graduations, entrance ceremonies, picture days and some other formal meetings and events we attended. A cheap suit is fine. It’s not so much flaunting the money you spent on your clothes, it’s the respect you show to the environment you’re in.

19. 1. Try not to care about what people at orientation do. 99% of them won’t be going to your prefecture and you’ll never see them again

    2. Japan’s got a whole basic “recruit suit” style. For schools in particular, unless you’re the principal, VP or a head teacher, a basic black suit is more than enough.

    In my case, teachers kept their suits in their lockers in the teachers’ lockerroom. They’d show up in their normal street clothes, change ahead of (whatever the suit-requiring event was) and then change back right after.

    (I would *highly* recommend keeping your/a suit in your locker at school for emergencies. There was the occasional surprise suit day)

    3. IIRC, I only had to wear a suit for the graduation/entrance ceremonies, teacher evaluations (it was the JTE being evaluated, not me) and any ALT meetings at the prefectural office. And the one time the prime minister came to the school for a photo-op.

    4. Uniqlo sells decent enough suits, but I’d suggest places like THE SUIT COMPANY. You can get a very nice, stylish suit for $200 (or probably less with the exchange rate). They also have great summer suits that breathe wonderfully in the humidity.

20. To go against the grain here a little, I work at a high school, and until June first (cool biz) all of the masculine-presenting teachers at our school had an unspoken “we wear dark-colored suits every single day” rule. The feminine-presenting teachers had seemingly more leeway, though many of them also went full suit. I’m inaka, and not in a prestigious school; it was just the weird dressing culture of my school. So I wore suits EVERY SINGLE DAY. I hated it. I had a rotation of 4 suits that I wore until they’d get stinky, and then I’d take them to a dry cleaner occasionally. My pred just had two cheap washable suits, and he washed them once a week and hung them to dry.

    That being said:
    1. I haven’t heard of other JETs with my situation yet.
    2. I experimented with some mismatched blazer/slacks combos and got some “oshare” comments but nobody ever scowled at me or told me to change, as far as I am aware.
    3. In Japan in general, a suit tends to be like a uniform–it isn’t supposed to look good, it just needs to be worn. So among coworkers, you’ll see a wide range of people who clearly care and have nice tailored suits, and people who look like they’ve been wearing the same suit every day for 15 years, that they bought without checking the size, with chalk stains and frayed cuffs.
    4. You don’t need a nice suit for orientation. Just a suit. What you have should be fine.
    5. Once you arrive, if for some reason you realize your elementary school requires you to wear suits a lot, you can find some really nice quality, 100% wool suits at thrift stores like Second Street, and potentially have them tailored. Or if you can’t, people’s suggestions to try Uniqlo are totally fine as well. But more than likely, your one suit will get you through everything.

21. Geez. Bought my jacket at Target for $40. Most people are too worried about themselves to closely observe the quality of your suit..

22. You would wear it less than once a month. Any suit is fine, as long as it looks like a suit and you wear a tie. Some teachers dont wear them (they dont care about their jobs anymore)

23. My suit was 80 bucks and I had to replace the pants and blouse when I lost weight. Depending on your school, mine wanted the ALT’s to dress in the standard black suit/white shirt blouse for closing/opening ceremony/open days. I ended up getting the replacements from Uniqlo (6000 yen) but I haven’t branched beyond the basic black suit. I have a standard blazer for winter and a cape blazer I break out on occasion if its above 28 degrees for summer events.

    ESID but my school is more relaxed with ‘cool biz’ for everyday wear especially for females. Cardigans and linen dresses are my staple all year round. As long as you’re not showing cleavage/shoulders or have anything above the knee it’s all good!

24. I didn’t have a proper suit for orientation. I just wore something that was business formal and wore a blazer over it. I think on the last day I wore a black cardigan. I have never worn a full suit for school either but I’m also in Okinawa and there’s a different definition for formal wear here. I’m at a high school and only homeroom teachers are expected to wear formal suits for graduation. In Okinawa, we have kariyushi which is like an Aloha shirt and that can be considered business formal for us. Because our weather is much more humid, cool biz is prevalent any time during the year.