Will I get fired after teaching 5 years in Japan? “5 year rule”?

13 comments

1. >Jet, Interac, Gaba, ECC, Berlitz, Amity, Nova

   Those are all dispatch companies. You can work with them for as along as you want, provided they renew the 1yr contracts. When you get directly hired by a BoE or private school is when that 5 yr shit comes into play.

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   Someone correct me if I’m wrong.

2. JET has a five year rule, once the five years are over you are expected to go home. The other jobs don’t have a limit but if you do them for five years you won’t ever be able to move on to any other desk job. “teaching” English is a trap. The quotes mean that most of these jobs don’t involve any teaching, you are pretending to be a teacher. You won’t gain any valuable experience or any professional skills.

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   The real teaching jobs require you to have real teaching qualifications. These days that means a masters degree, a teaching license, published papers and a PhD for university work. Without these qualifications you will be on the pretend treadmill making 3 million yen forever. The only hope for escape you will have is to get a blue collar job after you grind out 10 years and get permanent residency.

3. This is not directly relevant, but you don’t want to be working for one of those companies for five years.

4. Ask them.

5. I worked via JET and Nova for a year (each). If I’m speaking strictly about the contract length then JET has a “5 year rule” but due to covid I know a couple 6 year jets. The way it worked was every year they would ask “do you want to continue working, or quit?” And the outcome of both is self explanatory lol. I’m not sure /why/ they have the 5 year limit. Most people I know that stayed for all 5 years wanted to live in Japan regardless of job, and JET was a stable way to make income while searching.

   Nova was similar, they would ask do you want to renew your contract or not. But I don’t think they have a hard limit, I talked to people that claim to have worked for Nova for well over 5 years.

6. The 5 year rule applies to all companies in Japan like another comment mentioned. It basically just makes it harder for them to fire you. It also protects you from people trying to circumvent the rule firing you after 4 years.

   For example you decide to forever work at a shitty eikaiwa/dispatch company (they ALL are), you keep records of your performance reviews and contract renewals stating you’ve been a great employee for 4 years, the company would need a damn good reason to fire you.

   If they dont have a good reason you can take it to the labor bureau.

   But this likely wont happen because if you’re a half decent dancing monkey, these companies will gladly pay you peanuts to keep dancing the rest of your life.

7. I work at Nova and know quite a few people on unlimited term contracts. You just have to request it when going into your sixth contract. They aren’t allowed to say no.

   Anyway, if you want to teach seriously, I think working in an Eikaiwa is fine while you get your other teaching qualifications at the same time. I’m also a contract lecturer for a university and I’m working on post-grad stuff with the goal of moving to the university full time in the future.

8. Only you know what is right for you. JET has a limit in years but I wouldn’t make a 6 year plan until you have experienced the actual job.

9. I only skimmed through the comments but there’s quite a bit of misinformation flowing around here.

   relevant law:

   >（有期労働契約の期間の定めのない労働契約への転換）(Conversion of a Fixed-term Labor Contract to a Labor Contract Without a Fixed Term)Article 18　(1)　If a Worker whose total contract term of two or more fixed-term labor contracts (excluding any contract term which has not started yet; the same applies hereinafter in this Article) concluded with the same Employer (referred to as the “total contract term” in the next paragraph) exceeds five years applies for the conclusion of a labor contract without a fixed term before the date of expiration of the currently effective fixed-term labor contract, to begin on the day after the said date of expiration, it is deemed that the said Employer accepts the said application. In this case, the labor conditions that are the contents of said labor contract without a fixed term are to be the same as the labor conditions (excluding the contract term) of the currently effective fixed-term labor contract (excluding parts separately provided for with regard to the said labor conditions (excluding the contract term)).[Labor Contracts Act Article 18](http://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/law/detail/?id=2578&vm=04&re=02)

   Simplified if you have yearly contracts and have been contracted for 5 years and a day, you have the right to convert to a permanent work contract. This would provide the same protections against firing by not-hiring as a lifer. It doesn’t give you their benefits. (I’ve skipped over some complicated rules about what counts as continuous).

   This doesn’t apply to

   1. 業務委託 because that’s a contract between two businesses not a labor contract.
   2. direct hires of BOE because government is exempt from the act
   3. JET because government is exempt from the act

   There’s an exception for universities and research institutions where depending on the job role, it’s 10 years instead of 5. Government and the courts have not looked favorably on claiming it takes 10 years for part-time faculty or non 教授、准教授、講師、助教

   now, Article 19 basically says they can’t preemptively “fire” (not rehire) people to avoid having them exceed five years, but functionally they can get rid of people for lots of reasons. (talk to a lawyer).

   Here’s the government’s own website: [https://muki.mhlw.go.jp/](https://muki.mhlw.go.jp/)

   some local MHLW websites have some information in English (awkwardly translated).

   —

   But to repeat dougwray’s point, it’s a terrible goal for the sort of chicken scraps people are earning at ALT and eikaiwa. Consider not being able to work there > 5 years a gift.

10. The 5 year rule is bit of a mixed bag. If you’ve been renewed multiple times (having 1year contracts), and can expect to be renewed again, then you are more than likely to be able to convert to a permanent contract. However, it will be in the contract that takes you into your 5th year that you can convert, meaning that you will actually be permanent from your 6th year. And you can send the form for conversion to permanent employment to your employer anytime during your 5th year.
    If the company chooses to non-renew to avoid the 5-year rule, then they need a good reason why, as you have been renewed multiple times and are expecting another renewal.
    I know people at a lot of people at these companies who have converted to permanent contracts.
    If you’d like more information feel free to contact info@tozenunion.org, and they can help with explaining about the 5-year rule, and fill in any gaps that I may have missed.

11. JET will get rid of you after 5 years. I don’t think any of the others will but unless you go to a trainer role I don’t really see any career longevity in any of them.

    My own personal experience is through Amity where teacher salary caps out at 355k per a month after 3 years and then they give you extra holidays (Which are incredibly hard to take) for the next however many years. The only real salary progression after that is becoming an emergency teacher which effectively get a salary increase by not having to pay rent.

    After doing that for a year or two you might get taken on as a trainer which comes with an additional stipend on top of your normal salary. Should be noted all of this requires a letter of recommendation from your initial manager which can be a crapshoot to say the least. For example, my manager great. The manager at Kanazawa caused a Japanese teacher to commit suicide…So yeah. Make of that what you will.

12. I’m part of the interview committee at the University I work with. This is what we send to applicants.

    “Japan’s restrictions on fixed-term employment contracts took effect in 2018, and employees (assistant professors) with at least five years of service with a University, upon the expiration of their fixed-term contracts, are not allowed to remain employed past the 5 year mark in order to respect University guidelines on non-permanent employment. Employment candidates are however allowed to take leave from the University for a period of no less than one semester and reapply once again through the candidate selection process, thus resetting the 5 year employment time stipulation. Please understand that this is an industry wide regulation and not specific to our University.”

13. I think you may be putting the cart before the horse..

    If you want to teach in Japan come here, see if you like it, and see if you’re good at the job. Most teachers who come here don’t stay at a company for 5 years. They trick being that the opportunities you can find in country (through networking) are far better than the ones you can find shopping around online.

    BUT to answer your question, if you do find a good company off the bat, that you like working at, and they like you. Chances are that they’ll bend the rules to keep you.

    Good luck!