Hello everyone!
So I’m currently a second-year student at a Japanese university. I’ll graduate and get my teacher’s license by 2026. My department doesn’t really get many international students so none of my teachers or advisors have been able to solve any of the doubts I have regarding job hunting as a foreigner. First of all, I am not entirely sure if foreigners can even work in public schools as homeroom teachers as this is basically a 公務員 role. My Japanese is fairly advanced but I would much rather work at an international school. However, from what I have been able to find online many of these job postings require previous teaching experience which I won’t have as a fresh graduate (apart from 実習). My ultimate goal is to work as an IB teacher in life but I’m aware I’d need to go to a graduate program to get a certification. Although Id love to do this right after graduation I’m almost in my mid-20s so I need to start working.
If you have any advice on how to proceed, please let me know!
PS: I am not a Japanese national.
5 comments
What subject/level will your teacher’s license be?
Rather than going through the IBEC route at an approved graduate program, I would recommend attending an MYP/DP face-to-face workshop and get trained in 1-2 subjects. This will make you a much more appealing teacher candidate for authorized/candidate IB schools.
Depending on the prefecture you can take the 教採 and become a normal teacher, but your job title won’t be the same as a normal Japanese teacher (you will be a 講師 with no contract length rather than a 教論).
Whether they’ll make you a homeroom teacher or not depends on how the 校長 feels and if they think you can do it, but I don’t think they’ll make you do it in your first year at least.
The main concern the BOEs/principals have (at least the one I work for) is that when you aren’t an ALT you are expected to work within/fit in to the Japanese education system to a certain extent and they are concerned people with a western educational background will struggle to do this.
“I am not entirely sure if foreigners can even work in public schools as homeroom teachers”
Not at all public schools, but there are prefectures and cities looking to hire foreign teachers to become essentially the same as a Japanese teacher. Last I noticed, Saitama City was one of said places.
Most international schools will want you to have a foreign license, not a Japanese one.
That said, don’t forget to look at Japanese private schools. Public schools tend to want to make good Japanese nationals and are strictly controlled re curriculum, but private schools can be looser depending on their mission. Salary/life balance can also be better. As somebody married to a public JHS teacher who works karoshi line all the time I can tell you it’s pretty crap right now especially if you are male and competent. They just dump work on you to compensate for the less competent and working moms (btw I am a working teacher mom too so someone compensates for me – this is the facts but reality is they need to fix their systems so everyone works less). My coworkers in private have it a bit easier.
I’m not familiar with Japanese local system but in my international school we have 3 teachers who are locally licensed. 2 are Japanese language teachers and 1 is a Psychology teacher.
>many of these job postings require previous teaching experience which I won’t have as a fresh graduate
Experience at a local Japanese school also counts, FYI. It’s not like international schools only hire people who worked at international schools.
Also could consider looking at international schools that also follow MEXT (like dual diploma schools), as afaik they need a certain number of teachers to hold a local license anyway.
>My ultimate goal is to work as an IB teacher in life but I’m aware I’d need to go to a graduate program to get a certification
Not sure what kind of program you mean? If you mean like IB workshops, then generally the school would send you (ie if u got an offer at an IB school, they’d pay for you to do the IB workshop). It’s been the same for me too, as an international teacher.