JETs with Spouses. How did your partner find work?

12 comments

1. I know it will be ESID, but I just like to hear others stories so I can kinda have an idea of what could happen xD

2. Following because my husband will be coming with me too 🙂

3. Are you in the Facebook group JET Couples and Families? They’ll be able to give you more specific advice.

   I’m not in this situation, but from what I’ve heard you first have to go to immigration and get approval for spouse for work.

   From there, finding is a job is based on A LOT of factors. Can your wife speak Japanese? Is she willing to engage in other types of work? Is your placement urban or rural?

   If your wife has at least some basic Japanese proficiency, I could see her being able to get some sort of restaurant chef job, especially if there are any immigrant owned local restaurants (doesn’t matter if they’re not English speaking immigrants. An immigrant owned business will just be less likely to refuse to hire her for being foreign/not speaking good Japanese).

   Seeing as even really small towns tend to have a least a couple or restaurants, I think her chances of finding something are actually pretty good. Most spouses that I know either got some sort of manual labor job (more likely in the countryside) or worked part time for an eikaiwa

4. My wife is a yoga teacher. After arriving she joined a local gym, which does all sorts of classes like yoga etc. She asked at their desk if they had openings and now she works their part time.

   She then got a teaching job herself with one of the dispatch companies. Much easier to do once you’re in the country in recent years, you can also be a little more forceful with where you want to work, at least to a city/prefecture degree.

   Many exchange students work in low level retail, in restaurants, in hotels etc.

   Food jobs here are highly regulated, we once thought about opening a small cafe but really the food and health regulations to do it were a massive headache.

   The bigger the city you’re in and the better her japanese the easier it will be to find non-english teaching work. The less of both the more likely it will be either a small part time job or english teaching. Of course, there are possibilities everywhere, just need to find them.

5. For what it’s worth, our experience was fairly easy. We arrived in the small window last Fall where JETs were allowed in before they closed it off again, so jobs at Eikawas were fairly desperate for new faces. My wife got a lot of offers (and even worked for 3-4 weeks at one position until she decided she hated it). We had to go to a tax office (immigration?) and apply for permission to work part-time (one-time process affixed to her resident [zairyu] card), which was very easy and took about 20 minutes or less.

   She works at a different Eikawa now for a few hours 3 nights a week for much better pay (it’s technically better by the hour than JET pays) and it is under the max she’s allowed to work. Her Dependent status allows her to work up to 28 hours a week and I think the NIH she’s covered with through my job allows her to earn about 1/3 of my pay (so about 1.3 Mil yen). I think if she had really wanted to she could have found a school willing to help her change to work visa status, but she was content to just work part-time and it’s been just enough income to help us live a bit more comfortably. They pay her travel expenses to and from work as well.

   If anyone is moving to the city of Kyoto and would like to set up this part-time job for a spouse in advance, contact me for details, as they are currently looking to fill her shoes as we are leaving at the end of July! Also feel free to PM me any questions or ask for more details and I’ll do my best!

   (edited to fix a couple numbers based on Malumen’s reply)

6. ESID indeed. We’ve been here nearly 3 years now, and my husband still doesn’t have a job. He took on the role of househusband, for three main reasons.
   * He doesn’t have a college/uni degree, so most teaching jobs are off the table, even online.
   * He hasn’t learned any Japanese.
   * He dislikes people in general, and does not “play well with others”.

   He cooks a mighty fine meal, and does all the house chores, so at the end of the day, we make it work. But I know that doesn’t work for everyone.

7. I’m in Hokkaido in a small town. It took about three months, my husband has no degree but can speak a bit of Japanese. We found it really hard to start with, but it got better.

   The best way to find local jobs is to get connections in the community. The more he joined in clubs, took up any social opportunities to find people, he started to be offered work.

   He floats between support, farming with some friends we have made here and barista work.

   Of course ESID, but that was our experience.

8. We lived on a small island and while my husband never found an official job, he did manage to get some day labor work. He did farming and he helped a landscaping company when they needed extra help for the day.
   My jet salary covered what we needed mostly, it just provided him with something to do during the day.

9. Placed in Tokyo. My husband arrived two weeks after me. I watched the jet Facebook groups carefully for ALT postings and by the time he got here I’d found him a part time position.

10. I have no personal experience with this as I’m an incoming JET myself, however I am in a FB group called English Teachers in Japan and see tons of job offers particularly for people who are already or will be in Japan. Be ware of the scammers though.

11. My husband had some work as an aftercare school program chaperone but basically in our smaller town, it was unlikely he could find anything else. My husband doesnt speak japanese and he only had a bike so navigating a rural area was tough. He was a house husband primarily and we managed to save enough because of the low cost of living. We even brought home a huge savings.

12. I don’t have personal experience with this, but I know someone who came to Japan with their spouse. I believe their spouse actually works on one of the local farms. Doesn’t need much Japanese, just needs to physically be able to do the job. Sounds like it pays well. I think there will be some work available in most places, and some of which that one would not immediately think to do. So check around, and I’m sure something will come up. Or if working online is okay, there’s always that available.

    But I think in your wife’s situation, she might be able to work part time at a pastry shop or bakery if they’re looking to hire. I’ve seen a fair amount of foreigners working at various shops like those. The only thing is that a decent level of Japanese may be required depending on what job she decides to pursue in Japan.

    All the best to you and your wife on your adventure to Japan!