Kumamoto International School?

11 comments

1. >I realise that salaries tend to be competitive over there due to high demand

   Who told you that?

   Anyway, even the bottom of that payscale is livable with a bit of planning and foresight.

2. The lower of the two salaries you cited is quite a bit higher than most ALT and eikaiwa positions. It’s definitely a livable salary for a young single person.

   Having said that, know what you’re getting into. First and foremost, make sure the school is accredited and that the experience will be counted when you apply to other schools later. This school came up in a separate forum recently. The website is only in Japanese, so it’s guaranteed that this isn’t a multicultural student population. Sometimes there are schools (all over the world, not just Japan) that have “international” in the name but actually aren’t really international schools, they’re more just bilingual schools.

   Furthermore, the yen exchange rate is really bad with no signs of changing anytime soon. Your money won’t go very far if you’re planning to transfer savings out of the country.

   Living in Japan can be pretty expensive, even in smaller cities like Kumamoto. Transportation is expensive, making travel difficult sometimes. Utilities and rent are also on the high side.

   Taxes are also high, and due to some unique circumstances foreigners’ tax rate goes super high in their second year of living in the country. My understanding is that the current year’s tax rate is based on the previous year’s income. So the first year’s tax rate is relatively low by Japanese standards because there was no income from the previous year. But then it increases a lot in the second year because it will be based on the first year salary.

3. I would like to add some things specifically about Kumamoto and Kyushu in general.

   First: Almost everything you read about Japan in English relates to the major cities and often isn’t true or can’t be applied in the smaller cities. E.g. transport. It’s an hour plus walk to the nearest train station from that school, and it’s 45 minutes by other forms of public transport to that school. While trains will often be on time, buses are frequently very late in Kyushu due to their long route distances. Honestly, driving is the best and only really viable mode of transport for most of Kyushu. Note, this also makes finding out information about doctors quite a bit more difficult via google alone.

   Second: Weather. Kyushu has some of the best weather in the country. It’s not that cold in the winter and the summers are not as torturous as the major cities. However, the heat in summer alongside the rains of rainy season and the semi-frequent typhoons from July – October reinforce the above comment about needing a car.

   Third: It’s far away from other places. Getting to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Sapporo will be rather difficult (read expensive) from Kyushu. However, Kyushu itself is a great place to travel around! Aso in Kumamoto, Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Miyazaki – beaches and mountains are beautiful here, Oita has plenty of cool small towns full of rich history, Kagoshima has one of the nicest to visit volcanoes in the country. While Kumamoto is the best place to get around Kyushu, again having a car will make this significantly easier.

   Fourth: The people. Kyushu has some of the nicest people in the world. I’ve lived here for 7 years and never felt like I was heavily discriminated against. Never been stopped by the police. Heck, I’ve had an old woman drag me to a doctors when I had an obvious neck problem, pay for the doctor visit and then pay for the medicine. Straight refused to allow me to pay. Never saw her again unfortunately. However, Kyushu people have their own perception of time and people are not as strict about being late for social events in Kyushu. It’s called “Kyushu time”.

   Five: Money. Kyushu isn’t anywhere near as expensive as other places in Japan.

4. I lived in Kumamoto for 5 years.
   Kumamoto is very cheap to live. 4.5 million is chump change in Tokyo, but in Kumamoto you’ll be living very well as a single person.

   That being said, Kumamoto is a VERY difficult job market for foreigners. I’m assuming that since you don’t live in Japan and are fairly young, that you probably don’t speak Japanese?

   Keep in mind that in Kumamoto, as a English teacher with no Japanese ability, if the before mentioned job goes awry, you’ll have no choice other than shady, awful eikaiwas (Ben chan, open world academy, Washington, nova, amity, etc).

   However, on the plus side, I have lived all over Japan and I think Kumamoto is one of the best and most unique prefectures in Japan. Beautiful mountain/volcano in Aso, amazing ocean in Amakusa, perfect sized city in Kumamoto city, amazing castle, scenery, etc. All while being very cheap to live.

5. I’ve not heard of it but if that salary is post-tax then it’s pretty standard ‘bottom of the salary scale’ pay. If it’s pre-tax then it’s not good for a proper international school. All the ones I’ve seen/applied to/got offers from start at 5m post-tax for a ‘new’ teacher.

6. Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if they are lying about the salary and are not an international school.

7. I make less than 3M yen a year. Im ok (others make 2M)

8. I think the pay is a little low; while it is true that salaries are low in Japan compared to other countries a ‘normal’ start salary as a qualified teacher is 500k to 1m more than that.

   Having said that it seems you are coming from overseas, and that already discounts you for lots of schools.
   As a step into the country, to then be good enough at the job to perhaps move to another school, it is definitely a salary you can live on in Kumamoto quite comfortably.

9. Dear teacher

   The salary is fine, but that is not the issue at this school. Please, please think carefully before accepting a job at this school, especially as a PYP teacher. PYP teachers are severely overloaded and are expected to stay overtime just to scrape by. Because of this, none of the teachers or assistants have time to take an hour lunch break. Most teachers only take 20 to 30 minutes.

   The principal does not value his staff. In this school year alone he has advertised teachers’ positions without their knowledge TWICE, and both teachers were highly experienced and qualified. There is so much wrong with how things are done at the school, and if you speak on it too often, this is what happens. He hires teachers with less experience because they know less about how a real school should be run.

   Please think carefully before accepting a job at this school. It might not be worth the money, especially when he offers less vacation time, no sick days, and less benefits when compared to other international schools in Japan. If you do accept, prepare to be micro-managed, overloaded, and treated as incompetent.

10. [deleted]

11. Did you get the job?

    My friend was interviewed by the principle for couple times and he promise to give a feedback or result ASAP. But, he didn’t.

    That’s not how professionals work. accepted or not, he should makes clarification.