The demographics that sign up for dispatch/ALT work from abroad and the demo that becomes actual teachers at schools are pretty far apart, mostly because of motivations, career goals, and qualifications.
When I worked at a kindergarten it was mostly women. I think the places that deal with early Childhood will tend to have more women.
Men tend to put up with more shit and stick it out at crappy companies purely because it pays the bills. Men are also more likely to work late hours, which suits the eikaiwa industry.
That’s not limited to Japan though.
For things like kindergarten, women are more common because of the nature of the work and the flexibility of the working hours. (You’re unlikely to be teaching a toddler English at 8pm.)
[deleted]
I do hiring for my company. Last time we had an open position, 86% of resumes were men. I think men are more interested in moving to Japan. Turnover of women is also much higher. Men stay 4-5x longer than women (at our company). Life in Japan is a lot harder for women than men.
Japan has always been a more popular destination with foreign men. Just like there’s more foreign men + Japanese women couples than the obvious. Both of these trends are changing, but it still has a lot of momentum.
I think they’re connected. Most people wouldn’t move somewhere in their 20s where they aren’t interested in dating/marrying/settling down, and until recently Japan wasn’t that for western women as much as it was for western men.
This is an impossible question to answer without showing the data. But a lot of people are going to try anyway. Ultimately their answer will say more about what they want to be true and who they surround themselves with than about the real data.
We have a roughly 60/40 split of male/female at my school.
I was an ALT in Tokyo last year. When we had those periodical branch meetings, we only had a handful of guys compared to the ladies. But that’s just one ward in one company and no where near the big picture.
While I can’t really judge the majority for ALTs or teachers in general, I’ve only ever seen one or two lady managers at whatever place I’m working at.
Men often take on more risks than women. There’s also a better dating outlook for western men moving to Japan than western women.
I think women generally prefer living in western countries…
Feel like even back home in the US, teachers tended to be women. From like, elementary through high school. For me, it was mainly high school and onward to university when more men started to appear more often. There were men as teachers at points along the way from kindergarten – 12th grade, but buy and large the majority of teachers I had in that span were women. I don’t think that’s exclusive to Japan.
That being said, at the technical high school I work at, the majority of teachers are men, especially the classes having to do with the technical/industrial subjects like machinery, electricity, architecture, surveying, etc.
I work at a national eikaiwa chain. The hires are about 50/50 male/female. Roughly 80% leave within the first year or two (to other jobs or go home). 95% of the remaining eikaiwa teachers are male, which means almost all the eikaiwa teachers are male (it’s a big chain that churns through a lot of recruits). There’s maybe one female for every four teachers.
I also moonlight as an ALT, but I’ve only worked at a few different schools and always as a direct hire. All my ALT colleagues (I can count them on two hands) have been older men. They’re all all direct hires too.
Japan is a conservative, patriarchal country. I can’t speak for anyone else but American women have much better job prospects in the US than here. If I cared about climbing the corporate ladder or whatever I’d go back to the US. I wouldn’t stay here.
Also dating is harder for western women than for the men I think.
Work in an all girls school ratio is almost 50-50 female teachers and male teachers. But at eikaiwas I saw more male teachers
Being an English-speaking white man in Japan is basically playing on Easy Mode.
(Source: am an English-speaking white man in Japan)
Seriously, though, there are a million things to get adjusted to in a new country with a completely different culture. Women have it much, much worse because that culture is set up to benefit men, especially older men.
I have met a lot of smart, strong, capable women who have come to Japan. Nearly all of them eventually got tired of the lack of respect and opportunity and power and left. The position of women is much better in Western countries.
Now add to that not knowing the culture and you can imagine how much a woman has to deal with.
Unless someone has any concrete information, you just created a post for people to post anecdotal statements and will not get the real answer to your question. Congrats!
I was told there are way more male than female English teachers. More men come to Japan and way more stay than do women do – if I remember correctly something like 80% of western women leave Japan within some years.
It might help to define what kind of teaching work you’re talking about. Formal school teaching, university, early education, cram school…?
You mention ‘branch’ so I’m assuming you mean Eikaiwa. I’m not sure how people chiming in with female to male ratios of teachers in their home countries is helping you, if that’s the case.
I work at a university faculty and the teaching staff reflect the students: 70% male and 30% female. But I work in a “male”-ish subject area. The English teachers are 50:50.
Not sure whether you were asking only about expats – there are relatively few non-Japanese at my workplace, including among the English teachers.
My entirely anecdotal evidence is showing me that the amount of people who sign up is about the same, but women tend to leave sooner. Japan does rank really low in gender equality, so sexism probably does a role in that.
If only this was the was the way in the west.
More males stay long term. There’s actual data to prove that. It’s easier for a man to get married to a Japanese national and settle down compared to a woman.
23 comments
The demographics that sign up for dispatch/ALT work from abroad and the demo that becomes actual teachers at schools are pretty far apart, mostly because of motivations, career goals, and qualifications.
When I worked at a kindergarten it was mostly women. I think the places that deal with early
Childhood will tend to have more women.
Men tend to put up with more shit and stick it out at crappy companies purely because it pays the bills. Men are also more likely to work late hours, which suits the eikaiwa industry.
That’s not limited to Japan though.
For things like kindergarten, women are more common because of the nature of the work and the flexibility of the working hours. (You’re unlikely to be teaching a toddler English at 8pm.)
[deleted]
I do hiring for my company. Last time we had an open position, 86% of resumes were men. I think men are more interested in moving to Japan. Turnover of women is also much higher. Men stay 4-5x longer than women (at our company). Life in Japan is a lot harder for women than men.
Japan has always been a more popular destination with foreign men. Just like there’s more foreign men + Japanese women couples than the obvious. Both of these trends are changing, but it still has a lot of momentum.
I think they’re connected. Most people wouldn’t move somewhere in their 20s where they aren’t interested in dating/marrying/settling down, and until recently Japan wasn’t that for western women as much as it was for western men.
This is an impossible question to answer without showing the data. But a lot of people are going to try anyway. Ultimately their answer will say more about what they want to be true and who they surround themselves with than about the real data.
We have a roughly 60/40 split of male/female at my school.
I was an ALT in Tokyo last year. When we had those periodical branch meetings, we only had a handful of guys compared to the ladies. But that’s just one ward in one company and no where near the big picture.
While I can’t really judge the majority for ALTs or teachers in general, I’ve only ever seen one or two lady managers at whatever place I’m working at.
Men often take on more risks than women. There’s also a better dating outlook for western men moving to Japan than western women.
I think women generally prefer living in western countries…
Feel like even back home in the US, teachers tended to be women. From like, elementary through high school. For me, it was mainly high school and onward to university when more men started to appear more often. There were men as teachers at points along the way from kindergarten – 12th grade, but buy and large the majority of teachers I had in that span were women. I don’t think that’s exclusive to Japan.
That being said, at the technical high school I work at, the majority of teachers are men, especially the classes having to do with the technical/industrial subjects like machinery, electricity, architecture, surveying, etc.
I work at a national eikaiwa chain. The hires are about 50/50 male/female. Roughly 80% leave within the first year or two (to other jobs or go home). 95% of the remaining eikaiwa teachers are male, which means almost all the eikaiwa teachers are male (it’s a big chain that churns through a lot of recruits). There’s maybe one female for every four teachers.
I also moonlight as an ALT, but I’ve only worked at a few different schools and always as a direct hire. All my ALT colleagues (I can count them on two hands) have been older men. They’re all all direct hires too.
Japan is a conservative, patriarchal country. I can’t speak for anyone else but American women have much better job prospects in the US than here. If I cared about climbing the corporate ladder or whatever I’d go back to the US. I wouldn’t stay here.
Also dating is harder for western women than for the men I think.
Work in an all girls school ratio is almost 50-50 female teachers and male teachers. But at eikaiwas I saw more male teachers
Being an English-speaking white man in Japan is basically playing on Easy Mode.
(Source: am an English-speaking white man in Japan)
Seriously, though, there are a million things to get adjusted to in a new country with a completely different culture. Women have it much, much worse because that culture is set up to benefit men, especially older men.
I have met a lot of smart, strong, capable women who have come to Japan. Nearly all of them eventually got tired of the lack of respect and opportunity and power and left. The position of women is much better in Western countries.
[Here’s an article about the gender gap in Japan.](https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/backstories/2538/)
Now add to that not knowing the culture and you can imagine how much a woman has to deal with.
Unless someone has any concrete information, you just created a post for people to post anecdotal statements and will not get the real answer to your question. Congrats!
I was told there are way more male than female English teachers. More men come to Japan and way more stay than do women do – if I remember correctly something like 80% of western women leave Japan within some years.
It might help to define what kind of teaching work you’re talking about. Formal school teaching, university, early education, cram school…?
You mention ‘branch’ so I’m assuming you mean Eikaiwa.
I’m not sure how people chiming in with female to male ratios of teachers in their home countries is helping you, if that’s the case.
I work at a university faculty and the teaching staff reflect the students: 70% male and 30% female. But I work in a “male”-ish subject area. The English teachers are 50:50.
Not sure whether you were asking only about expats – there are relatively few non-Japanese at my workplace, including among the English teachers.
My entirely anecdotal evidence is showing me that the amount of people who sign up is about the same, but women tend to leave sooner. Japan does rank really low in gender equality, so sexism probably does a role in that.
If only this was the was the way in the west.
More males stay long term. There’s actual data to prove that. It’s easier for a man to get married to a Japanese national and settle down compared to a woman.