I was just talking with a new ALT working for Interac. Junior high and elementary in semi-inaka . He’s very disappointed with it and looking to change job/location. I was shocked to find out they only pay ¥215,000 per month now, plus do a NOVA style gouge on a Leo palace apartment, and he has to purchase his own car to get between the schools! Apparently they changed the contract a couple of months ago AFTER they arrived in Japan to lower the salary and pay by the hour. Apparently now they’re also hiring non-native speakers now from places like Indian and Brazil.
When I first came to Japan over 20 years ago, the minimum they could pay was ¥250,000. JET was ¥300,000 and included a free apartment, sometimes a free car.
Are all the ALT dispatch companies paying so terribly? Why the reduction in salary?
I was considering doing teaching again, but I can’t do JET again, and I certainly don’t want to work under the terrible conditions of Interac. I’ve heard the University gigs have also become poor, as they’ve chopped up a lot of the positions into multiple part-time gigs to pay less, and the competition is fierce.
So which gigs pay the best?
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r/teachinginjapan is probably a good place to ask this if you haven’t already. Also r/ALTinginJapan.
Without teaching certifications/classroom experience for international schools or MA/PhD with publications your best bet would be direct-hire jobs.
https://old.reddit.com/r/teachinginjapan/comments/vqwuos/trendhealth_of_various_alt_dispatch_companies/ – tldr: dispatch companies all suck.
> Why the reduction in salary?
Plentiful supply of weebs/people from countries that make more money on 200,000/month than back home and get to live in Japan.
Spend some time in r/teachinginjapan and you’ll see that it’s pretty bleak out there. “Race to the bottom” as they call it.
ALT and Eikawa salaries have gone down over the last couple decades. Outside of working for an international school, JET is generally the best paying job in the teaching industry. University positions can be pretty good if you can get hired as a regular professor, but that’s getting harder and harder and a lot of university jobs now are pay by hour adjunct positions. Sometimes you can get lucky and find a direct hire ALT position or local eikaiwa that will pay well, but it’s like finding a needle in a haystack. Between salaries actively falling and the yen falling in value, teaching in Japan is no longer a lucrative position. Giving rising student loan debt, it’s arguably a job that some people can’t afford to do.
Also side note, but a decent percentage of the population of India are native English speakers.
1. Yes, JET has always been the best ALT programme to head out with as far as perks go.
2. Because it’s easy to find people willing to be paid next to nothing who want to live/work in Japan. The sheer amount of people who apply to Heart (commonly thought to be one of the worst) is crazy.
Iteract and several other dispatches have also lost a lot of contracts over the last few years too. Smaller pool of jobs, huge pool of candidates.
Most people use them to get out there, get set up then find another job.
3. Really depends what you’re willing to accept. 😂 Usually it’s International/University.
Direct hire for Japanese schools often pays more than JET, but you will have to work more hours or more irregularly (Saturday).
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People are willing to work for that pay to be in Japan, the dispatches want to make a profit, and the boards of education want to reduce their costs so they give their contract to the cheapest company. If they couldn’t hire people at that salary, they would be forced to raise it.
Without qualifications, direct hire would be the best imo. After that, I’d suggest smaller dispatches that work with private schools, not the “big names”. You can sometimes find the listings online, starting ~300k p/month. I think you have to be on the ground already to apply for most of these though. I currently earn a little more than I did on JET, but no pension/health insurance (also no desk warming), but I’m not sure common these types of jobs are. Can’t speak for eikaiwas cos I don’t personally know anyone that works for them.