Teaching in Japan (Not at conversation schools, or as an assistant)

I'm at that point in my life where I must apply to colleges and choose what I want to do with my life. I have always loved languages, and have always wanted to have a career that somehow involved language.
Ever since middle school I have had a deep interest in Japan, its language, and its culture. I have recently started studying Japanese and am enjoying it very much.

Ok, now to the point: I would like to teach English in Japan. Not in a conversation school like NOVA, and not as a language assistant like the JETS program, but as a fully certified teacher. I am interested in either teaching at the high school level, or at the university level.
Is this something I, as a foreigner, would be able to do in Japan? And if so, what should I do to get there? I figured that I should major in Teaching English as a Foreign Language, and minor in Japanese Language, but how far should I go with it before I move to Japan? Just a Bachelor's, or should I get a Master's first? Should I get a Bachelor's in America, then get a Master's from a Japanese college? Also, what would I need to go through to become a certified teacher in Japan?

Thanks in advance!

-Cameron

You mean like becoming a teacher in a Japanese public school? You need Japanese citizenship for that.

You mean teaching at one of the private International schools or perhaps one of the DoDDSS (Department of Defense Dependents School System)? Those are doable.

How much would teaching at a private school differ? Also, about how much would I make a teaching at one, and how would I go about becoming qualified? How would I even go about finding a job once I am qualified?

I figured that you needed citizenship, although I had hoped that you didn't to teach English.

Sorry for having so many questions, and thanks for your help so far!

May I suggest that you contact one of the international schools and indicate your plans/goals and ask for advice from people with firsthand experience with it? I'm sure they would be glad to help you out and their information would certainly be more accurate and useful than anything you're likely to get from us.

I googled up a link to the Department of Defense Education Activity for you. They should be able to help you out if you are interested in that option.

According to ads on the Japan Times posted by international schools in Tokyo/Kansai regions on some occasions, the fundamental requirement is a bachelor's degree in education in the US, UK or other English-speaking countries.

I have never seen a foreign national (American, British, etc.) holding a full-time teaching position at a Japanese high school, public or private. However, there are such teachers in universities, and the one I know personally has an MA in TESOL, TEFL or English linguistics (I don't remember which)...

Isn't Mars Man a full time teacher in a university?

Yes, I am a full time teacher at a private university. . . relative to McDonald's, it's a Royal Host. . . hee, hee, hee..... A BA will do the trick to some degree, but an MA would be better. Japanese, to some rather practical degree is almost a must. (especially if a person would want full time) But a person would have to be ready for something besides just a bed of roses.

Mars Man said:

But a person would have to be ready for something besides just a bed of roses.

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I'm sorry, but I don't quite understand this expression. Are you saying that the income for teaching at a private university is very low?

epigene said:

I have never seen a foreign national (American, British, etc.) holding a full-time teaching position at a Japanese high school, public or private.

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Public positions of that nature are quite rare, however, private schools take on full-timers regularly. Just 2 years ago, I finished a 3-year stint at one, and we had 3 others there. There are still 2 there.

Minion,
If you want information on being a full-time certified teacher in Japan, go to JALT or ETJ sites. Or go to www.eslcafe.com or www.eltnews.com and read the FAQs.

Essentially, here is the deal.

You are going to have to start out in entry-level work. That means JET Programme ALT, dispatch company ALT, or eikaiwa instructor. After a year or two, you have enough experience to see if you can land a FT job in a private JHS/SHS. That's about where you will stay for FT jobs.

Options beyond that:
1) Take on PT work and self-sponsor a work visa. Many make more money that way, but you have to be on your toes constantly to get the work, and you hop from job to job.

2) Get a real teacher's license in your home country, teach a couple years there, and then apply here to international schools. You can teach English or any other subject (in English). Better pay than most jobs.

3) If you want university work, PT jobs are open, but you have to have contacts and usually a master's degree. If you want a FT uni job, you will have to get a master's degree (in the appropriate field, in contrast to what you need for any other job except int'l schools), plus publications, plus teaching experience in Japan, plus some proficiency in Japanese. Competition is high, with 20-100 applicants per position on average. Most FT uni jobs are not tenured, so you will have to change employers fairly often.

Contact me offline if you have questions regarding private HS working conditions or university applications. Otherwise, go first to those 2 sites above and read them thoroughly.

Glenski said:

Public positions of that nature are quite rare, however, private schools take on full-timers regularly. Just 2 years ago, I finished a 3-year stint at one, and we had 3 others there. There are still 2 there.
Minion,
If you want information on being a full-time certified teacher in Japan, go to JALT or ETJ sites. Or go to (url) or (url) and read the FAQs.
Essentially, here is the deal.
You are going to have to start out in entry-level work. That means JET Programme ALT, dispatch company ALT, or eikaiwa instructor. After a year or two, you have enough experience to see if you can land a FT job in a private JHS/SHS. That's about where you will stay for FT jobs.
Options beyond that:
1) Take on PT work and self-sponsor a work visa. Many make more money that way, but you have to be on your toes constantly to get the work, and you hop from job to job.
2) Get a real teacher's license in your home country, teach a couple years there, and then apply here to international schools. You can teach English or any other subject (in English). Better pay than most jobs.
3) If you want university work, PT jobs are open, but you have to have contacts and usually a master's degree. If you want a FT uni job, you will have to get a master's degree (in the appropriate field, in contrast to what you need for any other job except int'l schools), plus publications, plus teaching experience in Japan, plus some proficiency in Japanese. Competition is high, with 20-100 applicants per position on average. Most FT uni jobs are not tenured, so you will have to change employers fairly often.
Contact me offline if you have questions regarding private HS working conditions or university applications. Otherwise, go first to those 2 sites above and read them thoroughly.

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Wow, thanks for all the information! I will check out those sites, and then after I will probably wish to contact you. When you say "Contact me offline," do you just mean to PM you?

Thanks again for all that info, Glenski, and also thank you to everyone else who posted in here!

PM is fine. Email is ok, too. I get about 50 emails a month dealing with this sort of thing, though, so put something clear in the subject line. "Howdy" will go into my garbage bin.

TheMinion said:

I'm sorry, but I don't quite understand this expression. Are you saying that the income for teaching at a private university is very low?

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That depends on a number of factors (the income matter) but what I had in mind more so was the different kinds of little things that come up besides just teaching. Of course such would happen in any institution, the Japanese style is gonna be different...and something one has to get used to.

One lady came back to Japan after having done a number of years as an adjunct associate professor at a university in the States. She got the job here, but after two years kind of got fed up with it and went back to the states. (of course one big thing, I speculate, is that being female still behind the times...)

Another thing would be that you would likely not be eligable for tenure. It just doesn't seem to be something in the market so much. (not all...mind you...I'm sure some non-Japanese lecturers and professors are tenure-tracked...but few.)

One court case here between another local university (No 1 in this area) and a non-Japanese teacher is on going and some group came to support him which kind opened-my eyes on some of the problems that non-Japanese educators can run into--as though some are simply being used...as it almost boils down to.

The institution I work for is a bit better...at least so far they have treated me rather fairly. I don't make that much, but if I were to weigh in all the benefits...and the almost four months paid vacation that I have...it's not that bad. BUT...like I said, money aside, it's not a bed of roses.


ps: follow the advice above. I did the private schools, the AET at the public schools, did contracts with a couple of locall institutions--factory, hospitial, and travel agent, I had the opportunity to do a local radio show for six months (basically a flop, but....it gave me the air waves...) over some 16 years before I ended up here. NOT that you're gonna have to spend that much time, but to encourage you to follow the above info posted by Glenski san.

Glenski said:

PM is fine. Email is ok, too. I get about 50 emails a month dealing with this sort of thing, though, so put something clear in the subject line. "Howdy" will go into my garbage bin.

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Ok, thanks! I will be emailing you shortly, then.

Mars Man said:

...
ps: follow the advice above. I did the private schools, the AET at the public schools, did contracts with a couple of locall institutions--factory, hospitial, and travel agent, I had the opportunity to do a local radio show for six months (basically a flop, but....it gave me the air waves...) over some 16 years before I ended up here. NOT that you're gonna have to spend that much time, but to encourage you to follow the above info posted by Glenski san.

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Thanks for sharing your experience and advice!
Would there be more opportunities, with better pay and such, if one were to teach at eikaiwa or HS for a number of years and then get Japanese citizenship?

You don't know yet that you'll last out the first year here; leave concerns about citizenship for the future.

The best advice you'll ever get is to make sure that whatever education and job credentials/skills you get will serve you equally well whether you end up living your life in Japan or back home in the U.S. Very few of the youths burning up to live and make their careers in Japan actually ever even show up for so much as a visit. And while I have known many people who have stayed here for decades, not a single one of them came here with that as their intention. On the other side of the coin, I have yet to encounter anyone who intended to come and stay until death or retirement age who ever showed up in Japan at all. Of the people who do come to Japan to work, it is the rare Western college-educated foreigner who stays beyond three years at the most.

In other words, odds are you ain't gonna be here like you think you're gonna be here. Plan accordingly.

Mike Cash said:

You don't know yet that you'll last out the first year here; leave concerns about citizenship for the future.

The best advice you'll ever get is to make sure that whatever education and job credentials/skills you get will serve you equally well whether you end up living your life in Japan or back home in the U.S. Very few of the youths burning up to live and make their careers in Japan actually ever even show up for so much as a visit. And while I have known many people who have stayed here for decades, not a single one of them came here with that as their intention. On the other side of the coin, I have yet to encounter anyone who intended to come and stay until death or retirement age who ever showed up in Japan at all. Of the people who do come to Japan to work, it is the rare Western college-educated foreigner who stays beyond three years at the most.

In other words, odds are you ain't gonna be here like you think you're gonna be here. Plan accordingly.

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I plan on majoring in TEFL/TESL, so I am definitely not going to be working inside the US in the future. Japan is the place I would like to work, and so that is what I am planning my education around.
Now you may believe that planning for the future isn't relevant at this point, but I believe it is extremely important. I don't want to show up in Japan with no future ahead of me, and no plans. I would like to know what I would be faced with before going there, and I would like to know my future options. Yes, coming back to America would be a future option, but so would staying in Japan and becoming a citizen. I asked my question because I wanted to know if the job opportunities and such would improve if I were to become a citizen; a hypothetical situation. I never said that is what I had planned, nor that I was sure that I wanted to do such a thing. It is simply an option.
I thank you for your help so far, but I would rather not hear anymore of this, "you probably wont even get here anyway," attitude. If that is all the input you have left for me, than I would ask you to refrain from posting further.
You may wish to spend your life just going with the flow, but I would rather plan out mine. I want to know all of my future options before I go to college and dedicate myself to a career path.

Work on your critical reading skills and it will save you the strain of getting your *** up on your shoulders. Planning for your future is precisely what I advised you to do.

And what on earth makes you think that TEFL/TESL is of no use inside the US?

Mike Cash said:

Work on your critical reading skills and it will save you the strain of getting your *** up on your shoulders. Planning for your future is precisely what I advised you to do.

And what on earth makes you think that TEFL/TESL is of no use inside the US?

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I don't wish to argue about it, so I am ignoring the first part of your post.

I didn't think it would be of no use inside the US, I just meant that I wouldn't want to stay in the US if I was doing TEFL/TESL; I would rather teach in another country, and experience new cultures and languages.

Don't ignore Mike Cash. ESL is English taught in a native English speaking country. The USofA needs ESL teachers, especially with the rise in Spanish.

I think Mars Man's earlier comments about university not being what you think it is, has validity. Basically, it is not like university life in the USA. There are tons of problems with tenure (a rare item, as he mentioned), discrimination, true level of students' English, their motivation, etc. Essentially, learn a lot more about what it is like; it isn't what you think it is.

You may wish to spend your life just going with the flow, but I would rather plan out mine. I want to know all of my future options before I go to college and dedicate myself to a career path.

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I'm a big one for planning, but 9 years of living in Japan has shown me another thing... patience. Go ahead and research what you feel you want to be when you get older. Really research it! In Japan, things are in a terrible state of flux...

1) Koizumi's administration was ready to put English in elem. schools as mandatory, then Abe got in and changed it 180 degrees, and who knows what Fukuda wants now?

2) What was a safe 250,000 yen/month salary for decades has suddenly become iffy at best. Many employers are offering far less, and desperate teachers who take it only hurt the situation.

3) The biggest eikaiwa in Japan is on the verge of collapse, which would put 5000 teachers on the street (some of which would go home). Many other eikaiwas have suddenly gone bankrupt, giving their teachers and students essentially zero notice.

4) Some eikaiwas have changed the way they report a teacher's hours, so that the job is listed as full-time, but the reported hours look like part-time, and that allows them to avoid making copayments into national health insurance.

5) Public schools stopped their Saturday classes, and now they are on the verge of returning to that system. Parents who wanted their kids to continue getting the education they needed to pass the college entrance exams were part of the reason for the switchback.

6) Dispatch companies are on the rise. They have completely taken over the Kanagawa area, eliminating jobs there for JET Programme ALTs. They are also infiltrating the university system, booting out full-time teachers who have more experience and qualifications.

7) Universities are merging or closing due to the declining birth rate. It is estimated that by 2050, the acceptance rate for university applications will be 100%, which sounds good for students, but for teachers, it just means that any Taro, Daiki, and Hitoshi can get in, regardless of their true abilities.

Glenski said:

Don't ignore Mike Cash. ESL is English taught in a native English speaking country. The USofA needs ESL teachers, especially with the rise in Spanish.
I think Mars Man's earlier comments about university not being what you think it is, has validity. Basically, it is not like university life in the USA. There are tons of problems with tenure (a rare item, as he mentioned), discrimination, true level of students' English, their motivation, etc. Essentially, learn a lot more about what it is like; it isn't what you think it is.
I'm a big one for planning, but 9 years of living in Japan has shown me another thing... patience. Go ahead and research what you feel you want to be when you get older. Really research it! In Japan, things are in a terrible state of flux...

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When I said I was ignoring part of his post, I was referring to the, "Work on your critical reading skills and it will save you the strain of getting your *** up on your shoulders," part; I didn't wish to get into a pointless argument about it.
I'm not sure what you mean by, "Essentially, learn a lot more about what it is like; it isn't what you think it is." I was never doubting anything that Mars Man said. In fact, I thanked him for his input. I came here to inquire about the what it is like, since I didn't know.
I really am trying to research it! That is why I am here. I just don't understand what the problem with my question about citizenship was. I was just curious if the job prospects change when you get citizenship.

Thanks,
Cameron

TheMinion said:

I was just curious if the job prospects change when you get citizenship.
Thanks,
Cameron

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I have to admit; I don't know the answer to that one. I would tend to think that being a naturalized citizen in itself, would not really make any difference; it would be more along the lines of what you can do, have done, or carry under the belt.

Anyway, I wish you the best on whatever does actually and eventually happen !! MM