Hey, everybody.
I’m interested in getting an English teaching job in Japan for the 2024-25 school year, and I was wanting some advice from the veteran English teachers in Japan.
First, a little on background so you can better understand the jobs I might qualify for:
* I’m an American, living in South Korea as an English teacher.
* I’ve got 3 years experience teaching public elementary school in South Korea.
* I’ve got 6 years experience in tutoring chemistry at the university level.
* I’m graduating with an MA in TESOL this December.
* I’m an executive committee member for a national TESOL organization.
So, I’ve been in Korea for three years. I’m graduating with an MA in TESOL soon. My ultimate goal is to eventually teach at the university level, preferably in Japan. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed that most Japanese universities are pretty strict with what they want in applicants. They usually want applicants that already have university teaching experience, have several publications under their belt, already are living in Japan, and have some ability with speaking Japanese. With the above being said, what advice can you give me on transitioning to a university position in Japan? Would it be better to first get some university teaching and research experience in Korea/China, and then transition to Japan? Or, might it be better to first try and get a job in a Japanese high school, that way I’ll already be in the country with a visa, and can start learning the language? Or, should I just go for it and start applying to universities even though I don’t meet the qualifications?
**Any advice the veteran teachers can offer me would be greatly appreciated. For example, what do Japanese universities usually look for? Ways to boost a resume/CV for hiring committees. The best job search websites. Etc.**
Thanks, everyone.
12 comments
Maybe try r/UniTeachinginJapan
Get published and learn Japanese. Those will be the biggest boosts to your CV that you can do right now from Korea.
Basically 2023-24 has sailed already, their year starts in April. So you’ll need to aim for 2024-25 if anything.
No advice for uni but I think you’ll find teaching in Japan generally is significantly different from teaching in SK. What you want if you go this route is probably an ALT position so you can try JET or dispatch companies. Working in a high school right off the bat is just a matter of chance and you might end up being put in middle of nowhere elementary school or middle school.
Good luck with everything else.
Most of the ads you are reading are for already established uni teachers. I think it is better if you move to Japan and work at another type of school, get a visa, and make contacts. Then get some PT uni work as lower level universities-where you don’t need uni experience, Japanese, and other requirements are low and then work your way up the ladder over a couple of years. Join and be active in JALT or JACET and that will take you far at the beginning.
Check the listings on JALT— I got a uni position in Japan by applying for a job that I saw via JALT.
Publications are effectively essential. The more the better, and refereed outweigh non-refereed. With your background and some publications, you might be able to shoot for some part-time work in universities. In the big cities or at prestigious or well-paying universities (the two not always being the same), competition can be stiff, and you likely won’t hear of most of the open jobs. (Some companies, *e.g.*, Westgate, ostensibly send people with minimal qualifications to work at universities, but the people who do that work are not considered real university teachers, at least at the schools where I’ve encountered them: they don’t teach courses for credit, for example.) The problem, however, is that you probably would not be able to get a visa if you were only teaching part-time university work.
Full-time, effectively tenured work would be out of the question unless you are (a) near fluent in Japanese or (b) have a doctorate and are pretty fluent in Japanese.
You will not be able to get a real high school teaching job in Japan because you need a license, getting which effectively means graduating from a Japanese university and being fluent in Japanese.
u/ApprenticePantyThief has the best advice for you: learn Japanese and start doing research and publishing.
r/gaijinjobs
The website for academic jobs in Japan is https://jrecin.jst.go.jp/seek/SeekTop?ln=1 the Japanese side has 10x postings as the English side. But, you need to be fluent in Japanese for the ones on the Japanese side.
A lot of universities have hard requirements for having a PhD to become a faculty member, especially the big national ones. But there are some that don’t.
I recommend getting a PhD in English linguistics not education. Maybe it’s just my school, but all of the full time language teachers research linguistics.
Also, teaching English is only one part of a faculty member’s job. They also need to do research and guide grad students in research. So, yes publications are important.
Also, unlike what the other people say, you don’t need to already be in Japan to get hired as a faculty member (assistant, associate, and full professor). The positions that you need to be in Japan for are the part time lecturer spots.
You aren’t an academic, you’re a public school teacher with an MA in TESOL. If you want anything more than a poorly paid part-time lecturing job at a low-ranked university you need to get some relevant qualifications, namely a PhD (preferably not in TESOL) and publications. Japan has plenty of people with years of graduate school – many of whom speak decent Japanese – already competing for each uni vacancy.
Tutoring a subject means nothing without a teaching license.
> Would it be better to first get some university teaching and research experience in Korea/China, and then transition to Japan
That sounds like the better plan. With your experience and qualification, I don’t think you’ll be able to find anything at the uni level other than part time and short term contracts. It’s not impossible just unlikely. It seems like Japanese university focus more on research and publications than teaching. Having more publications will likely boost your chances.
You can get a job as an ALT but with out an actual teaching license you’re unlikely going to be able to find any solo HS teaching jobs either. ALT work doesn’t count as experience in the education field for most employers. While it is possible to get a US teaching license online you may have a hard time fitting it around your work and it still doesn’t solve the experience requirements some schools may have.
So my advise is to get whatever experience, skills and qualifications you need for your dream job **before** you come to Japan.
I think most of the advice is recommending you imitate what seems to be a common route for people on this subreddit:
1. come to Japan as an ALT or eikaiwa worker
2. realize that is not a viable career
3. build connections / get an MA in TESOL
4. start part-time at universities
5. get full-time rotating contracts
6. potentially get tenure somewhere
I didn’t do that myself and I respect the hustle but …
It seems like a bad idea to move backwards in terms of work type. For the most part, years spent alt-ing or at an eikaiwa are not going to count for anything in terms of university hiring. You’ll be basically making those years blank just to get in country.
It seems like it would be smarter to find a way to do university work where you are and build the experience / research profile that way. But I can’t speak definitively as to how plausible that plan is.