I am an experienced teacher and I want to move to Japan for a year. I have questions!

8 comments

1. Commenting to follow this because my husband and I are in a similar position

2. >The most important is salary. While I do not mind putting our financial goals on hold for a bit, we would at least need to break even after accounting for moving expenses. This means that whatever job I accept would need to be able to cover living expenses for two adults (myself and my wife) plus the cost of heated storage for our things back in Canada.

   International school or JET, all those other options you listed pay at least 30% less. Some of these companies pay just over minimum wage and they don’t cover your health insurance payments

   >Ideally I’d like to teach in a high school or adult-learning environment.

   Most of the time you don’t get to choose

   >Whatever contract I sign up with would have to be for a term of 6-11 months with a possibility of extension.

   Pretty much everything’s a year, dipping out early on your contract isn’t cool but that doesn’t stop people from doing it all the time

   >Obviously, I want to sign on with a company I can trust to not under-deliver on promises/obligations or change my terms of employment without notice or reason.

   The in school teaching ( ALT) companies are pretty straightforward, but the private English conversation places ( eikaiwa) can be pretty shady

   >We are not too picky with location or lodging arrangements. Provided that we have a clean, safe place to stay with few maintenance issues, we’ll be happy. Being within range of scenic environments and/or tourist-y things is an added bonus.

   The apartment can be a crapshoot, it’ll most likely be old but decent. The problem is if you’re unlucky and get a shit hole, moving out is a real problem. As far as location: if you’re only here for a year everything is touristy and beautiful.

   >I’d like enough personal time to enjoy the cultural experience. As a teacher, I’m no stranger to long work hours, and I take my job seriously, but I can’t JUST be working.

   Most English teaching in Japan isn’t real teaching, you’re an assistant at best and entertainment at worst. You’ll have weekends and holidays, in fact other than JET companies will have you work just under the full time work amount to avoid paying your benefits.

   To answer your questions

   1: not unreasonable, but unlikely

   2: of that list, JET is the only program that pays well, the rest of those companies are well known to have labor rights issues. Also, the sight straight out says they’re a bunch of weeaboos, cringe.

   3: start applying now and tell them your aim is 2023, they’ve got a huge backlog of weeaboos they have to grind through, they’ll likely appreciate the extended timeframe

   4: If you’re making over ¥2.5 million a year you *should* be able to get her a dependent visa. ¥3.0 million is the safer number. It’s up to immigration, but if you’re at PeppyKidsClub making minimum wage they probably will deny it.

   5: have your storage place lined up and make sure your documents are in order. Whatever company ( JET ideally ) you work for will do all the leg work for you.

3. So /u/Mr_Inaka covered most of the stuff I would usually talk about. I just want to expand on a few of their points and a few other things.

   >I am now finishing my 9th year teaching high school professionally

   ***Normally*** I would say that you’re a perfect candidate for an international school, but…

   >Whatever contract I sign up with would have to be for a term of 6-11 months

   No international school is going to sign a teacher for a six month contract. And they’re also highly unlikely to even sign a teacher for a one year contract, knowing that teacher is going to be leaving after that year. International schools are real schools, looking for real, committed teachers.

   So unfortunately your time limits mean that your only available options are English teaching positions. (Or French, but demand for French teachers is orders of magnitude lower)

   >The most important is salary. While I do not mind putting our financial goals on hold for a bit, we would at least need to break even after accounting for moving expenses. This means that whatever job I accept would need to be able to cover living expenses for two adults (myself and my wife) plus the cost of heated storage for our things back in Canada.

   Given the above, this is almost certainly not going to be possible. English teaching is a (relatively) low skill job, with gap year university graduates as its target employees. It’s not a career job, and the salaries reflect that.

   An English teacher salary is reasonably comfortable for one person. It’s doable for two with a bit of scrimping. Two older adults who are also paying for storage on a bunch of stuff back home? That’s pushing it.

   You’re definitely not going to “break even” on the moving expenses. Moving abroad costs a fair amount of money, and you’re not going to be making that money back as an English teacher.

   >I’d like enough personal time to enjoy the cultural experience. As a teacher, I’m no stranger to long work hours, and I take my job seriously, but I can’t JUST be working.

   “Good” news! As an English teacher you’re not held to any sort of “regular” Japanese working standards. You work your hours, and that’s it.

   >If I have to work full weekends, I’d need a few weeks of time off.

   If you somehow manage to snag a real teaching job despite your limits, you absolutely ***will*** be required to work some weekends. And you absolutely ***will not*** be given time off in lieu.

   >Ideally I’d like to teach in a high school or adult-learning environment.

   As an English teacher you won’t get to choose. You’ll go where your dispatch company sends you. The ***vast*** majority of English education in Japan happens at the elementary/junior high school level.

   Your questions:

   >1. Is my expectation to find a job that can pay for the cost of living of two adults + heated storage back in Canada a reasonable one?

   It is not, IMHO. Given your time restrictions, the well paying jobs at international schools aren’t on the table. Trying to cover all those expenses on an English teacher salary would require being ***very*** frugal.

   >2. Doing some preliminary research, I have found lists of companies offering teaching opportunities in Japan such as this one.

   Teachaway is garbage. Ignore them. Like /u/Mr_Inaka said, JET is the only place you’re going to find a good wage.

   >3. If my goal is to move overseas any time after July 2023, when should I begin contacting company recruiters?

   If your goal is “after July 2023”, you’re going to be looking at the August/September intake for most English teaching companies. The main hiring season for that will be early 2023. Like March/April.

   But you can start talking to them now, as long as you let them know your timeframe.

   >4. I’ve read that if I can secure a work visa for myself that it won’t be difficult to get a dependent visa for my wife. Is this accurate?

   Yes, but…

   Like /u/beginswithanx mentioned, the only way for her to join you immediately is for your company to apply for the dependent visa at the same time as your visa. Most English teaching companies ***will not do this***. So you’ll probably need to apply yourself once you arrive.

   >5. What can I do right now to begin preparing for my departure in 18+ months?

   Find a job. Without a job the whole plan is dead in the water.

   Given your financial and time constraints, your first order of business needs to be finding out if this is even *possible*. It’s not worth going through all the other planning and preparing stages if you’re going to end up with a bunch of lowball offers that make you decide to pull the plug.

4. First all. you should be asking this at https://www.reddit.com/r/teachinginjapan (“for teachers past, present and prospective”).

   Second, your timeframe of only 6-11 months does not meet the hiring patterns of legit work in Japan.

   > a term of 6-11 months with a possibility of extension … I’ll be on a 12 month leave during which my school board guarantees my job when I get back, so I cannot commit to anything longer than that.

   Most places want you for 12 months although you *could* find a hyper-rare position of taking over for a teacher on maternity leave. Additionally, most rental leases are for two years.

   Thirdly, your wife is going to have big problems with her goals since Japan’s academia doesn’t really do transfers.

   >my wife is going to begin a college transfer program to then pursue a university degree in sociology. We’re looking into options for her to start taking courses while abroad

   Her options are very poor. Her best bet is to find a Canadian university with [“sister school” arrangement](https://www.queensu.ca/international/study/exchange), but for your “6-11 month” timeframe the transfer is sort of waste of time and hardly worth the effort for Japan’s low quality English-taught courses.

5. Here’s the darker side:

   Unlike Vietnam or China which have a spectrum of TEFL jobs, Japan has almost no middle ground in the realm of teaching: as a licensed teacher you have good options with a K-12. The eikaiwas and dispatch companies however are best avoided. JET is a good option, and the exception.

   I just wrote a post on Berlitz…which is now down to $16 usd per lesson. And although instructors are on-site for 35+ hours, eikaiwas will not pay for non-teaching admin and prep hours. Berlitz is traditionally considered a “higher paying” eikaiwa job.

   It’s very unrealistic to live affordably, in any developed country/city, on this wage. The only way I see people breaking even or saving at eikaiwas, these days, is if they live in a group housing situation or in substantially subsidized housing (which is offered by maybe 1 or 2 eikaiwa these days, if any)…and are extremely frugal in a smaller town or remote area.

   Of course, some new instructors are discouraged to find that their chosen destination is not a beautiful, temple filled city, or an urban paradise. A lot of Japan is concrete and bleak looking: parking lots, a shopping mall, a dwindling population primarily over 60, and perhaps a defunct gas station…there’s a reason so many young people flee to the bigger cities.

   There’s some pretty depressed looking towns in Northern Honshu…combine that with a long winter. Yes, there are many beautiful places, but many ALTs feel stuck…and simultaneously are hesitant to drive around with low travel reimbursements.

   There was a ton of “dark” videos ten to fifteen years ago on youtube…a lot of ALTs quitting, getting depressed, feeling isolated, making warnings…many of them have been removed from youtube. I actually think people who have studied the language and are somewhat introverted do better in these positions then they would in a more extroverted location, like Chiang Mai.

   If anyone finds the “Barry vs Japan” gem…this video was a pretty familiar theme…dude took a job with “Winbe”…they “place” him 200+ miles north…he covers the cost of rail travel…then they make him purchase another $100+ train ticket to return to Tokyo to fill out immigration paperwork. So he spends about $400 on multiple train trips to immigration within a week…they never reimburse him. He also encounters unpaid training, a dirty and overpriced apartment which is deducted from his paycheck, and is placed in this former mining town with some openly xenophobic characters (not true for a lot of Japan), but dude hit bad luck. You don’t really have a location choice in many of these gigs.

   Japan is possibly the stingiest country in Asia when it comes to teaching options–it makes sense. Most Japanese treat English as a peripheral activity (it’s not necessary for people to learn English to eventually get a good job in Japan; it’s passe these days)…very little is reimbursed, a lot of out of pocket upfront costs within the first 2 months, less subsidized housing if any than previous decades. In the short term, it’s a money pit.

   I agree with Mr._Inaka, opt for JET or international schools. Otherwise you will encounter many using the “stepping stone” trope…that they are simply using these jobs to eventually move onto something better.

6. I think you need to decide what’s more important:

   Going to Japan or keeping your job at home.

   You could make a decent/high salary teaching at an international school, and you’re the ideal candidate for those positions. There’s both Canadian and French international schools (accredited) all across Japan. But, you’d have to stay in Japan longer.

   You could come to Japan to teach English, but the pay is abysmally low. You will definitely be stretching your salary thin with two adults. It’ll also be harder to get your wife in, as most of these job don’t sponsor dependent visas.

7. As fair and blunt as I could possibly phrase this, “No, probably not”.

   What you’re describing is a working holiday, essentially.

   Very rarely does such an opportunity exist.

   Some genuine gems do have openings from time to time, but usually someone who has already put the work in and developed connections gets the job.

   Realistically most entities would see what you are offering as another tourist seeking to entertain their curiosities.

   There is not a shortage of experienced teachers looking for all manner of positions. Unfortunately being a native English, French, or XYZ speaker isn’t really all that impressive on paper.

   Most careers in Japan begin with a grind which tests the tenacity of an individual and their family right out of the gate.

   Earning a position which provides a bit more financial comfort and freedom to take small vacations is something that most do not experience until they have put a fair bit of time in with a school or company.

   Some find this to be part of the appeal, as if a few years of penny pinching and potentially discriminatory work situations are a badge of honor.

   Others are more savvy and manage to transfer to a new company while being mindful of their financial and visa status while in Japan. This takes a lot of research, communication, and sometimes a few risks.

   It may be better to just focus on your primary career goals, maybe an academic position you don’t feel so inclined to leave, and try teaching in Japan during a summer vacation at a cram school or similar arrangement.

   Summer programs are an excellent way to meet people in a low stress social situation, albeit less touristy.

   It takes a bit more initiative, but it isn’t nearly as committed and you still get a taste of the experience. It is also a lot more financially manageable if you have a salary job back home already.

   I hope you two manage to find something you are both happy with.

   If not what you’re hoping for, then maybe a newfound passion and relationships that lead you to a more substantial working situation in Japan.

8. I don’t think JET is a particularly good option either. Yes it pays better than most ALT jobs, and your trip to and from is paid for, but you are at the mercy of the placement lottery for everything else. If you end up in a placement where your housing is not subsidized or only lightly subsidized, it’s really going to squeeze you. If you get placed somewhere that you need a car, that’s another major expense.

   Plus, since you are an actual qualified, experienced teacher, “teaching” with JET could be an exercise in frustration.