Job Outlook for foreigners in Japan in 2012

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kndy
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Job Outlook for foreigners in Japan in 2012

Post by kndy »

Hi everyone, when I was in Japan, a lot of my friends could work as an English teacher, translator for companies to working for the newspapers like Daily Yomiuri. But I noticed a few friends coming back from Japan and having an equally difficult time finding a job in the US.

So, curious to see how things are in 2012 for job outlook for foreigners/gaijin. From your experience, to the people that you know. Are they still able to make living? And are teaching jobs still aplenty?
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Re: Job Outlook for foreigners in Japan in 2012

Post by greg »

This is weird, actually. I just recently came back to Japan. I haven't worked here since 2002, so I'm not that knowledgeable. I do know that since the fall of Nova, a domino effect in the eikaiwa realm has led to a lot of people unable to find work.

However, I have never taught eikaiwa and have never wanted to. I am working the ALT angle, and there has been an increased demand for ALTs since teaching English is now mandatory for 5th and 6th grade elementary school teachers. However, I know that the ALT situation is having difficulties as well. City boards of education are pressured to employ teachers and keep their budget from going over, so they hire these ALT dispatch companies to provide the teachers they need. However, this ALT dispatch company racket is a real cutthroat business. Those companies that make a point to treat their employees well and pay them a decent wage are often finding themselves losing work contracts to these crappy dispatch companies that underbid them. These other companies are able to underbid by drastically reducing their employees' wages. It used to be that you'd be guaranteed to make something like 250,000 yen per month or something like that, but many companies don't even come close to that. I Skype interviewed with one company called Heart, and they wouldn't even promise me at least 200,000 yen. The company I currently work for has a good reputation among the cities it services, however I have since found out that the company does not have a good reputation among those who work for it. I have been exploited and asked to lie in more ways than I ever thought would ever be expected of me. That's why I will only fulfill this 2 month contract and leave them ASAP.

However, many of these cities are getting sick of losing good ALT teachers because of these dispatch companies running each other into the ground. As a result, many cities are deciding to do away with dealing with the JET or dispatch companies like Interac and such, and just employing ALTs directly. So, I did not have trouble finding employment with one such city. Some of these cities have a certain number of years they will keep their ALTs, but the city that has hired me has no such limit. I am relieved.

As a result of what's been going on, Japan has become even more competitive. It used to be that anybody with a bachelor's degree and no knowledge of teaching English or the Japanese language could get a job in Japan easily, but that is no longer the case. Perhaps Japan no longer has room for "English" teachers who don't know how to teach English, but there are still plenty of opportunities for those who have some real teaching experience (ie not the talking tape recorders on the JET Program). Japan needs teachers who are serious about Japan. They don't need screwballs partyboys who don't care about their students and just come here for sex. The English language industry is currently being shaken up, and I hope the insincere ones who can't teach get tossed out in the process. This may be a good thing for Japan.

I find that since I have a decent command of conversational Japanese, I have a lot of interest paid to me by potential employers. I'm currently working for a crappy ALT dispatch company, but I was hired a few weeks back to work directly for a city's board of education. To teach in elementary schools, you really need to know how to speak Japanese because more than half of the elementary homeroom teachers cannot speak any Japanese at all. The curriculum is designed for team teaching, but most of these homeroom teachers either stand out of the way or are not even inside the classroom when I teach. I don't mind this though, and I can't blame them because they already need to know how to teach so many other subjects, and being required to help teach a foreign language they know little about is not very fair to them.

So anyhow, yeah, eikaiwa (English conversation schools) are in seriously bad shape, and ALT work has become difficult, despite the increase in demand. But if you understand the Japanese language, you know how to actually teach (like knowing what a modal or a gerund is), and if you are self-supportive (my future employer does not provide any living assistance at all, aside from perhaps commuting expenses), then this will place you far ahead of the competition.
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kndy
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Re: Job Outlook for foreigners in Japan in 2012

Post by kndy »

Thanks for posting guys. Greg, what you posted makes sense. So much has changed within the last decade or two decades but I appreciate you going into detail about the current climate.
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