Teaching English in Japan

TIME for a look at what being an English teacher in Today's Japan is like. I want to dispel the myths still surrounding this business.

When considering this path there are a few things that you must know:
1 - Teaching English does not pay well.
2 - Teaching English will not be easy.
3 - Getting a job teaching English will be hard and require a lot of work.

If you're not ready to deal with teaching English in Japan with this mindset, stay home. If you're ready and can believe this instead of what you've read and been told elsewhere, then read on.

There are 3 major kinds of English teaching jobs available out there:
1 - Institutions
2 - English schools/companies
3 - Private students

To make by, almost all English teachers teach at no 1 or 2, AND have to teach at no 3. What does this mean? It means that you're going to be teaching many hours a day, with little time to yourself, no paid vacations and you'll have to budget very carefully and be thrifty if you want to survive.

If you're good with working hard and often, budgeting, and being creative with what you have, read on.

With this said, there are some pretty good paying jobs out there teaching English, they are the ones where you work in institutions, read government schools, the prerequisites:

What you need to have to land a cushy (3000/month) English job:
1 - BA in education, psychology, ESL, or earl childhood teaching.
2 - Master degrees in the same fields if you want to teach students older than elementary (2-12).
3 - At least a year or two experience teaching English to students in institutions.
4 - Be comfortable living in a more remote place, up to 1hour to 6hours outside Tokyo.
5 - Knowing Japanese would be a big plus.

Then there are the jobs for people who want to live in the cites, see no 2 and 3. for this:
1 - Associate degree or BA in any field.
2 - Be already living in Japan (i.e. get your own VISA to live in Japan).
3 - Be ready to work Monday to Friday from 7am to 10pm and Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 8pm.
4 - Know business Japanese if you want a higher/decent pay (JLPT level 2 or 1. Japanese learned from watching anime is not near good enough).

Does this sound good to you? If so keep on reading.

Good jobs are open for application 3 to 6 months before the job starts, if you want to go to Japan right away, you're out of luck. All jobs have a very high number of applicants. For these kinds of jobs expect 2000 other people to be applying. There are perhaps 5000 jobs like this in all of Japan every yearn, and that if there's only one opening for all of those, many many people won't get this kind of job. If you manage to land one, congratulations, they will take care of the paperwork and you can sit back and relax. You'll be teaching English in Japan in 3-6 months.

English Schools and Private students require you to already be in Japan. So if you think you can get a job, better go overseas now.
Before you do this though consider these conditions if you want to make it there and back:
1 - You need an airplane ticket there and back.
2 - You need to get a VISA which will allow you to work, no one hires people on holiday VISAS anymore, even the Working Holiday VISA is not great.
3 - You need about $4000-$5000 saved up in a bank account which you will use while you're trying to get a job.
4 - You must have a plan B in case you're there, run out of money and have to go back from where you came (i.e. if you're broke, how will you be able to find a job, food and apartment when you come back?).

I'll probably be adding to this as more things come to mind but it's a pretty good start. If you're in Japan and want to find work. Looking at Gaijinpot and Googling English schools in areas you'll be willing to work in is the best bet.

NOTES:
- You'll be paying up to $10-$20/day out of your own pocket for train/travel expenses (think $300-$600 less than your calculated paycheck).
- You'll have to budget in the price of fruits and vegetables as well as meat, which are about 2-3 times what you'd pay for wherever you live.
- You will be taxed 5% on your paycheck too.
- Learn Japanese customs and stick to them! You are the minority foreigner here.
- Enjoy Japan, it's a great place!