The tefl industry in Japan feels like a complete joke at times. It holds some of the weakest salaries in east and south east asia for tefl.
I found out that tefl teachers are making the same salary in Thailand for the same working hours as we do here in Japan.
Is the demand for English really that low?
I am British but how do Americans afford to live here? Once student loans return some of my friends are expected to pay 80,000jpy a month. Thats more than our rent.
Can we expect to see salaries improve soon?
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Supply and demand. Tons of people want to move to Japan so there’s an endless supply of cheap workers
> Can we expect to see salaries improve soon?
Improvements in machine translation, outsourced online English teaching, and a limitless revolving door of weebs willing to work for peanuts to live in Japan. Yeah, that’s totally conducive to better TEFL salaries.
Don’t forget that the video contents that you create in Japan will have better engagement than of Thailand /s
Is it different for french teachers btw? Or is the situation the same?
> Can we expect to see salaries improve soon?
Nope. English teaching salaries have been slowly and steadily dropping for about 25 years.
There used to be a minimum salary requirement of 250,000 yen per month for the instructor or humanities visas, but that was done away with in the 90s and wages have been on the decline ever since.
These days there are a lot of jobs going in the 180K range, and they have no trouble filling those positions because of the large numbers of people who want to experience living here who are happy to put up with the shitty wages while they burn through their savings.
Most likely not. That’s why most ppl use teaching English to get into the country. Then they find some other skill / job to do. I think you can find average salaries for English teaching but if you want enough to retire on, you gotta get into another field for sure.
You make this sound like it hasn’t been going on since TEFL salaries topped out in the 1980s. Yes, in the 1980’s you would have been making more in actual number of yen, never mind inflation, than you are today.
Supply and demand.
English teachers aren’t paid very well compared to other countries but if you compared it to the average graduate entry-level salary, it’s on the same level. This is not to say that it is good pay but relative to other Japanese salaries, it is not surprising.
One factor to consider is how the compensation is slightly altered by many companies covering transportation expenses and some offering subsidised housing. Also, I’d say at least compared to western countries, you get further with your money in Japan. If you were back in the UK and couldn’t walk/bike to work, it’s not hard to burn £100-200/month in transportation alone.
My friends in Japan on a ¥3-4 million salary, in Tokyo, are getting along just fine. Maybe not a lavish lifestyle but it’s comfortable. Meanwhile, my friends in the UK on £25-30K (¥4.5-5.5 million) are struggling to pay rent.
As for the student loan situation, there’s very few places where an entry level job will allow you to pay a ¥80K loan without taking massive sacrifices. In most developed countries, a loan like that will be about 25-30% of the net pay of an entry level job.
You pay about ¥2000 yen a month to SLC, except now that the exchange rate is dogshit, it’s zero because of the minimum earning threshold. Clouds and silver linings and all that.
Because of the long line of <forbidden word>s wanting to live and work in Japan.
Worth adding to other poster’s commentary that while TEFL is indeed a low-wage “professional” job in Japan due to high supply and relatively low barrier to entry, in terms of your comparison with Thailand the yen is *really* weak right now. For comparison it was arond 80/1USD when I first moved to Japan in 2011, it’s now 149, so exchange rate has literally almost halved. Obviously brutal for those with student loan or other financial obligations overseas in USD.
Because English is not really a hard skill to acquire, and there are an abundant of English speakers.
Tefl jobs that actually requires qualifications and experience do pay okay. But most of the tefl industry is made up of eikaiwa and assistant teachers. The only requirement for those jobs are the visa requirements, so the pay is going to reflect that.
There so much people from 1st world countries looking to experience Japan and others from 3rd world countries looking for a better life there’s way more supply than demand. Which means theres no reason for these for profit companies to raise wage.
It’s because fat nerds are willing to work for so little just to be in anime land and visit Akihabara every week. You won’t find people desperate to work for so little in Thailand but in the r/teachinginjapan subreddit its always filled with people lining up to get in.
>Is the demand for English really that low?
No. The armchair economists of japanlife will claim it’s all about supply and demand, but that’s a very simplistic analysis. After all, when the supply of English teachers in Japan went down during the COVID crisis, our wages did not go up even though demand remained the same. “Supply and demand” is just a lie our community tells ourselves so we can justify blaming the newer crop of immigrants to Japan for our unhappy situation. There is a racist element to it as well, as people in this subreddit especially love to pin the blame on immigrants from non-white countries, subtly or not-subtly claiming that their identity makes them inferior as English teachers.
The real reason in my experience has nothing to do with any of that: The **Japanese TEFL industry tends not to value foreign TEFL expertise.**
That’s all it really comes down to. That’s why highly-qualified foreigners in the University system struggle to get permanent contracts. That’s why schools would rather hire a young English speaker with no experience over someone with relevant, advanced degrees. That’s why the country continues to depend on ALTs in public schools while non-Japanese independent solo teachers are quite rare. The foreign teacher is seen as a decoration for Japanese EFL teachers and students to play with, not a professional.
Local Japanese salaries haven’t been growing much at all. Why do you think the ‘gaijins’ get to have a raise?
To answer, no.
It’s more than just supply/demand. Japan has a weak economy. You won’t see any sort of significant improvement anytime soon.
My advice? Teach in China, visit Japan. I’m going over to teach in China next year (currently in Japan) and my friend is already over there teaching in Beijing.
You’ll make twice as much money and deal with far less competition. Just don’t post memes comparing Xi Ping to Winnie the Pooh you’ll be fine.
That’s the most profitable option. You can always go to Japan later in life. I’m studying coding/web development in my late 20’s so I can switch careers and go come back to Japan on a tech salary. Beautiful country to retire in if you have a decent job. Just not great for trying to get started in.
salaries will not improve. Tourism is booming and some of those tourists will stay and make the situation much worse. TLDR anyone teaching here has a dark future ahead
They aren’t hiring actual teachers, because the government doesn’t require schools have actual teachers for non-core/pull out classes that are technically not for official credit. If you get an actual teaching job as a direct hire, the wages aren’t amazing but they’re around the national average.
Until Japan cares enough about actually teaching English and regulating eikaiwa and dispatches, there is no “TEFL” industry, it’s just a whole lot of native speaker tutors being paid unskilled labor wages.
Why do you think you’re so special?
TEFL teachers make comparable salaries to their non-TEFL teaching equivalents (ALTs are equal to teaching assistants, not JTEs).
But, teaching is a pink collar job. And Japan is deeply sexist. Have a look at hoikushi salaries in your area. They’re frustratingly low.
Why are you working here even with the low salaries? Because you want to live in Japan. That’s why salaries are so low, there are plenty of people who want to live here so the eikaiwa and ALT dispatch companies do not need to pay more.
If people stop coming and there is a shortage of warm bodies, salaries will have to go up. No sign of that yet.
When I first got into Japanese, I looked up Japanese ALT/English teacher salaries on some pre-Gaijinpot website, and all the jobs advertised were 250,000 per month (before taxes).
This was early 2000s.
Then, in late 2011, the yen became really strong… so people sending back money for student loans probably had a good time (about a 64% increase in value of yen over the US dollar)… If the stayed, that is. (there was a mass migration away from Japan by short-to-mid-term stay foreigners with fears that Fukushima would turn all of Japan into a wasteland and send clouds of nuclear waste across the Pacific, etc.)
But other than that… hasn’t changed in over 20 years.
And now the yen is super weak, so people sending student loan payments back to other countries are
Tell workers command a better salary than many first year out of uni workers.
The main difference is their salary just doesn’t grow much.
It’s also not really seen as a career job, more a “gap year” thing. The competition for work is coming from gap yearers, not professional English teachers.
Also, professional teachers do make more. Not like huge bazzonkabucks, but they can make a decent career of it, especially if teaching at a private international school etc. But these people have got degrees in education
no one’s doing these jobs because they pay well. they’re doing them because they want to live in Japan.
if you’re actually looking to do TEFL professionally then yeah you’d cast your net as wide as possible and probably end up in Abu Dhabi teaching private lessons to rich kids.
the people going to Japan are going there because of Japanese culture/games/anime/girls/boys/food. there’s an almost unlimited supply of people who want to live in Japan for a year or two, have fun then move home. very few are looking for upward mobility so the market adjusts to favour short, relatively low paid, contracts for 20somethings.
>can we expect to see salaries improve soon?
For ALTs not likely. Direct hire positions will continue to stagnate thus erode to inflation.
ALT dispatch companies will likely reduce pay further, as they are forced to enroll their ALTs Shakai Hoken, and bidding wars against other dispatch companies for BoE contracts.
Supply & demand. If you want to make more, move to China, but you’ll have to then live in China
With the yen tanking a lot of Americans can’t afford to work as ALTs in Japan anymore. The student debt crisis is too huge. It’s been a topic recently in ALT spaces. Mainly the Americans coming over now are the ones with no/low students loans and those who can get into income based repayment plans. Those with significant loans who don’t qualify for income based repayment (generally those with private loans) just can’t afford to work in Japan as an ALT. The ALT industry is still going strong because there are still enough people that can afford it, but I think this will lead to a decrease in diversity in the industry
Salaries in general are low in Japan now, and the weak yen makes it look even worse.
If you are trying to make a serious career in TEFL, then Japan isn’t a great choice at the moment.
The demand is whatever it is. The valuation is low. English educator compensation hasn’t increased and won’t increase primarily due to domestic wage stagnation.
Whether it’s paying directly as a private student or paying for private school or tax revenues the money to pay for the English teacher isn’t increasing. And the other specific reasons you have such as lower limit for visa application, interchangeable resource and it requiring no specific skill. Out dated teaching methods meaning specific qualifications hold low value.
Note there has also been a general trend towards contract workers. It’s not just difficult for English teachers to get perm roles at universities.
Tefl in Japan is a way young people get into Japan. It is not a career. Treat it as such.
Just think of TEFL on the same level as a fast food working back home.
People want it, but they don’t want to pay a lot for it. So companies offer low prices and hire people for nearly minimum wage with terrible contracts. If the employee doesn’t like it, no big deal, because these is a line of English speakers who want a job.
Well let’s see. Minimum wage is like 1000円, this is what the majority of locals are making. Some people come from overseas with little to no education ( me too, I’m not hating) and expect to make way over minimum wage? Not really logical.
(I do make over 3x minimum wage though)
It is a joke.
Half the TEFL people I met are not fit to be around children forget teaching. Hardly two or three people had teaching and literature backgrounds.
Until and unless they start hiring people with literature related degrees, nothing will change.
The current Aeon monthly wage is 275,000. If you befriend the Japanese staff there and ask them what they earn a month, you’ll find it’s much lower. I’d guess around 200,000. So, English teachers are rather well paid, I would say. Thailand must be really overpaying if they can match that when their minimum wage is so much lower!
I’ve always thought the pay was quite good, compared to what Japanese people get in low skilled jobs. Can’t comment on skilled positions like teaching in University.
I think some of my American friends have used their low income to lower or defer or forbear their student loans but it sounds complicated and a like pain in the ass.
“Can we expect to see salaries improve soon?”
I taught English at an eikawa in Japan in 1996. I was paid 250k yen + free housing + flight to Japan and back with no teaching experience and an unrelated degree from a standard state university. This was a pretty standard deal then.
I would be VERY LUCKY to get that deal today.
So… No. You should not expect anything to improve soon. It’s been getting steadily worse for 30 years, and shows no signs of changing.
It’s a low skill job. Also cost of living in Japan is low.
If you get an MA and three publications you can get a university gig that pays comparably with other lecturers. You won’t be rich, but the pay is not at all bad and the perks are excellent. There’s the five year limit followed by academic musical chairs, but every lecturer has to deal with that regardless of department.
Gonna be ruffling some feathers here but: in most cases you need practically zero qualifications or experience to get one of these jobs. And in most cases you’re not even the sole teacher.
You have very little responsibility in terms of students’ welfare, if any. You don’t even need to be able to speak the local language.
If you have TESOL certificates or proper teaching experience then you can rightfully expect a better salary. People in uni-type jobs have good salaries.
So the question becomes: what kind of salary do you honestly expect? 250,000 per month is honestly still quite generous IMO.