Corona and Japan

 

Corona and Japan

    Hello, this is Lucas, and welcome to the podcast. Today, I want to talk about something that many of you outside Japan might be curious about, especially if you’re considering working here as I do, and that is how the coronavirus has affected Japan. In any discussion about life in Japan lately this is inevitably going to be an elephant in the room, and so I want to run you through what the last year has been like living here, as we approach the one year anniversary of life as we know it being turned upside down. The news may give you some idea about the broad details, but I’ll break it down in terms of what daily life has been like from the perspective of a teacher working in the public school system. Wherever you are I’m sure this is true to some extent, but it’s certainly been a bit surreal, like I’m living in an episode of The Twilight Zone.

    So to give you some background, one year ago I was looking for a new job, as I had just ended a contract at the Eikaiwa, or English conversation school, that I had been working at since 2018. Spectacular timing, I know. As I mentioned in my first podcast, I had moved here to Kitakyushu from Okinawa, mainly because I have friends in the area. For that reason, and also to avoid having to move again, I wanted to stay here, and so I found myself in the unenviable position of not only looking for a new job in the midst of an emerging pandemic, but doing so in one specific (and not very large) city. Needless to say, options were a little tight. In the end, I found a job at a private company that sources teachers for local school boards, and even though it was a step down for me in terms of salary, I took it. I had been seeing news coming from Canada, the US and Europe about economies grinding to a halt and millions of people out of work, so I basically counted myself lucky to have found anything at all.

    I should note, at this point, that when news of the virus came out, basically right as I was looking for work, I did consider just going back to Canada. There were several factors that ultimately influenced this decision. One was that at that time, no one knew just how crazy things were going to get. Between February and March, I had had some indications that this was more than just a minor bug localized to China: cases had been identified in Japan, and initially there was a hard lockdown, but that only lasted about a week. After that, the government and businesses implemented safety protocols, staying at home was made more or less voluntary, and even though non-essential businesses remained largely closed, one could have been forgiven for thinking that the situation was more or less under control.

    I should make it clear that the initial Japanese response was fairly decisive, compared to other countries. Japan, unlike in parts of the West, has no anti-intellectual subculture, no inherent distrust of science among any significant segment of the population, and…it shows. One thing I like about living here is that they care about results, they care about facts, and as such, they listen to their experts. The results of this have been a sharp contrast to what you’ve probably seen in the West: no protests, no conspiracy theories, and masks are basically ubiquitous. People wore them even before the pandemic if they had so much as a sniffle, it’s just considered a common courtesy to others to not spread germs all over the place. This contrast struck me early on, and I decided that if I was going to weather the pandemic anywhere, I was probably better off here. To date, it looks like that bet has paid off, because at the time of writing this, in Japan there have only been a total of 7530 COVID-related deaths, out of a population of 125,620,000, or about 0.006%. That rate is significantly lower than the US, at 0.15%, or Canada, at 0.057%. In terms of total cases, the number for Japan works out to about 0.34% of the population, which also puts the numbers from the US and Canada to shame, at 8.6% and 2.2% respectively.

    This low caseload in Japan has meant that while there are precautions we have to take, life has gone on with much less disruption than I have seen elsewhere on the news. I’ll walk you through what daily life has been like here, and let you compare that with what you’ve experienced.

    So when I started in this job, we did much of our initial training remotely, as remote work rolled out pretty quickly here, and has remained a big feature of the business world ever since. For my job, which is in public school, we’re still expected to actually go to school, but basically all my contact with my contracting company has been through email, Zoom, or messenger, and actually there has been a surge in the number of companies here that offer remote private lessons.

    In our training, we were told that because of the pandemic, schools would probably be closed for a few weeks, but that they would reopen as soon as it could be done safely. This indeed proved to be the case. We had a few weeks to prepare lessons and materials, and then I was back in a classroom. We had to wear masks of course, there was hand sanitizer everywhere, we were required to check and submit our temperature every day, plastic barriers now separate our desks in the staff room, and initially, classes were cut in half to allow for social distancing. Gradually, they did move back to full classes and a regular schedule, but the other measures have pretty much stayed in place. Social distancing is still enforced as much as possible, especially in assemblies of any kind, but that has begun to relax a little. This past year, with all that’s happened, I’m actually pretty amazed that students only lost about a month of school in Japan. I think that speaks volumes about what a little science and a little social consciousness can get you, as well as what the priorities here are.

    Outside of school, some businesses have taken a hit, but I have actually seen very few (if any) close. For a while, I’d say mostly in the spring and summer of last year, a lot of people stayed home and self-isolated (even though it wasn’t mandated), and restaurants were often pretty empty, but much less so now. Occasionally, as minor outbreaks of the virus occur, businesses have been obliged to close earlier, but this has been pretty rare. For the most part, everything is open, and people can come and go as they choose, doing more or less as they please. Everywhere you go, masks, sanitizer and social distancing factor in, but because people are so diligent and conscientious about these things, life goes on as normal otherwise. Even movie theatres are open, and I go out for ramen every weekend, where my favorite restaurant is reliably busy.

    Significantly, the one big change that remains in place is the fact that the borders are, for now, effectively sealed. As the pandemic ramped up last year, Japan, a country that has historically shut its borders at the drop of a hat, rather unsurprisingly…shut its borders. With a few minor exceptions, they have not reopened since. At the time of writing this, travel from almost every other country is suspended, based on a state of emergency that was declared in early February. This declaration, in response to the detection of a more virulent strain of corona within Japan, put on hold a partial, phased re-opening that had been in the works. Luckily I hadn’t planned to visit Canada this year, because that would be more or less impossible, and as far as I know, the hiring of new foreign teachers is pretty much a no-go for the upcoming academic year. However, it is worth noting that if things turn around and the borders do open by the summer, teachers may be allowed in at that time. This is significant, as some of you may know, because the biggest employer of foreign teachers in Japan, The JET Programme, usually brings over most of those teachers in August.

    The biggest factor that’s going to determine what happens in the next few months, as you might guess, is vaccination. Now, while the news from Japan regarding corona has been reasonably good so far, when it comes to vaccines, not so much. Never one to be rushed, Japan has taken its time to approve a vaccine, and to date only one (from Pfizer) has been given the nod. Because of this slow approval process, a supply chain has been subsequently slow to get set up, and therefore only as of mid-February have any shots started landing in arms. Right now, the very few doses available are going to doctors and nurses, but supply delays mean that any large-scale rollout here will probably be delayed until April. Securing enough shots for the entire population will probably take until June, or at least according to most estimates.

    So overall, things could be worse here. We did have our share of panic-buying initially, which surprised me a little, and I ended up getting dangerously low on toilet paper. Masks were also hard to come by for a while, but now the supply chains seem to have adjusted. While I’d prefer to get a vaccine sooner rather than later, as I work around hundreds of people every day, the delays there are the only real complaint I’d say I have at this point. Japan is nothing if not pragmatic, and really, that’s what is needed to get this situation under control. If you want to come, and they let you come, I would say go for it. To the rest of you, stay safe.

    If you haven’t yet, leave a comment about what you liked, what you’d like to see more of, any questions, I promise I’ll get to all of them. And if you can, please consider supporting me on Patreon. Patreon supporters get early access to episodes, access to some exclusive episodes, and some livestreams and Q&As will certainly be in the mix too. I’ll catch you next time.

The Hobbyist

 

    The Hobbyist

    Hello again, and welcome. This is Luke, and welcome to my humble podcast. So, last time I talked a bit about my work (teaching English in Japan, in case you missed it) and therefore today I thought it appropriate to talk a bit about the things I do for fun. To put it mildly, I am a man of a thousand interests; I collect hobbies like some people collect coins or postage stamps. Actually, one of my hobbies is collecting coins. I want to talk about these things because they will undoubtedly factor into later podcasts, where I will go into each in more depth, and also because I want to talk about hobbies in general, and why they are important from both a social and psychological point of view. In the future, I want to discuss a lot of different things here, like travel, politics, society, culture and science, but the lifestyle/hobby section will probably take up a pretty big chunk of bandwidth. As they say, life is short, and so you should do the things you love while you’re here.

    So before I go any further let me read out a quick laundry list of my hobbies, and give you some idea of what I’d like to chat about going forward. I’ve mentioned my lifelong interest in martial arts before, and that’s been a major focus for me. All told, I’ve taken Judo, Aikido, Karate, Kung Fu, Kickboxing, and a little bit of Jiujitsu. My approach to the martial arts is that of a generalist, where I learn what I can when I can, and try to take the best of each, incorporating them into a style that works for me. I think I mentioned I took some yoga too, which sort of ties into the martial arts, as I was taking it in part to improve my flexibility. I also run on a weekly basis, something I started casually, maybe a few times a year, and then got more into when I lived in Okinawa. There, I actually entered (and finished) two half-marathons, but to be perfectly honest I don’t plan on doing that again. I understand why some people like the challenge, it’s good to test yourself, but I just run for general health reasons, and pushing it past 7 kilometers at a time feels like overkill. If you run so far that your nipples start bleeding, I think that’s a clear sign to stop and call it a day.

    Another health-related hobby of mine is cooking, something I’ve done with varying degrees of success since I was a kid. I try to cook (key word: “try”) as a means to regulate my diet, save money on restaurants, and of course, try new things. It’s a little difficult right now because the kitchen in my apartment is atrocious, but nonetheless I have a pretty decent repertoire of recipes, and am fairly good at improvising.

    Cooking segues well into another hobby: gardening. I like growing my own fruits and veggies from scratch, there’s just a certain poetic quality to that, I think. I always liked the idea of growing exotic foods too, things you can’t usually find in a grocery store. I think someday I’d love to have a side business where I use hydroponics to grow some of the many edible plants that we just don’t make use of in Western society.

    Also, since we’re on the subject of being outdoorsy, I enjoy both hiking and camping from time to time. Naturally, the ideal window for doing either is pretty short in Canada (a few weeks between winter and black fly season really), but I’ve done a fair share of both in Japan. One of my favourite places to camp as on the beaches of Miyazaki, where we split our time between bonfires and body-boarding.

    Writing, as you may have guessed, is another hobby. I write all of this material, I kept a blog, I write short stories, and someday I’d love to publish a book, but I’ll keep you guessing as to what that will be about. If I end up getting enough support via Patreon, I may take some time off to get that done, but it’s a tall order when you’re working a full time job.

    I also like art, having taken a full year of art school between high school and university. Right now my art is mainly limited to doodling and sketching anime characters for my students, but I like painting and sculpture too. I even learned how to weld so that I could try my hand at metal sculpture. If I had a studio I would totally get back into that, but as you might imagine, welding kits are not cheap.

    Under the category of “totally random hobbies”, I also know how to juggle, something I picked up during my first teaching tour in Japan, and know how to use “poi”. Poi, in case you are unaware, is probably best described as a style of performance art, native to the Maori people of New Zealand, where one swings tethered weights in rhythmic patterns around the body. While traveling in Thailand, I happened to see someone performing this, was immediately fascinated, and essentially demanded they teach me how to do it.

    I should also mention my quasi-hobbies, which I would classify as “interests” really, since they’re passive activities. I love comics, used to collect them when I was a teenager, and consequently I’ve seen just about every superhero-themed movie and TV show there is. I love MARVEL, am currently re-watching all the movies in timeline order as I write this, and my top 5 superheroes of all time are, in order: Wolverine, Deadpool, Iron Man, Spiderman, and Thor. DC is alright, but compared to MARVEL their writing has been a bit of a train wreck. I also like watching Youtube videos, as does 99.9% of my audience I imagine, but I especially love Sci-Show, Answers with Joe, Crash Course, Atlas Pro, PBS Eons, Caspian Report, and pretty much any other channel that produces interesting science, history, or political content. Not that cat videos don’t have their place, but I can really only justify watching sitting on my butt watching Youtube for hours if I’m learning something.

    Lastly, I have to mention the hobby that I’m guessing a lot of you share, and that’s gaming. I suppose I have to qualify that a bit by saying that I don’t just play video games, but also board games, mobile games (read: Pokemon Go), and card games, most notably Magic: The Gathering. So, basically all the games. Another thing I’d love to do eventually is open a game store, not just for buying and trading games, but with actual spaces to rent and play board games as well. I was thinking of starting a Kickstarter campaign for that, but it’ll no doubt have to wait until we can all gather safely in groups again. As far as video games are concerned, I’m both a console gamer and a PC gamer, proud owner of a PS4 and long-time World of Warcraft player. For the uninitiated, World of Warcraft (or WoW), is an MMORPG, or massively multiplayer online role playing game. In fact, it was THE MMORPG back when it first came out way back in 2004, and still dominates a huge market share. At the moment, I play Classic WoW, helping to lead a group of players, or “guild”, on an Australian server called Remulos. It’s a great community, and to be honest I sort of dig being one of the only Canadians.

    So now let’s talk about hobbies in general, and let me open with a quote. I’m not 100% sure at this point if I heard this somewhere else or if this is one of my own, but if I’m plagiarizing please feel free to set me straight in the comments. Ready? Here it is: “If you want to be interesting to others, you have to be interested in things.” In other words, if all you do is work all day and watch TV all night when you get home, then I hate to break it to you, but…you’re boring. I suppose if you’re with an equally boring partner and you’re both content being boring together and raising boring little children, then ok, you do you. But, I personally don’t think this is the optimal lifestyle choice if you want to find (or keep) an interesting partner. Not only that, but if co-workers find you interesting, this will work out better for you than if they find you about as fun as watching paint dry. Hobbies are something of a social lubricant – a conversation starter, a way to bond with people, and a lot of them are cheaper than alcohol, another fallback social lubricant for a lot of people. Just speaking anecdotally, I can think of quite a few examples where I’ve made new friends and connected with new partners through a hobby. If you’re lonely, a problem that is no doubt reaching epidemic proportions right now (pardon the expression) I can think of no better way to meet new people than to join a club or group and explore an interest that you’ve been itching to explore for years. We are, after all, social creatures, and all this isolation is bad for our mental health. Even if you can only go online to take a class, that’s still going to provide you with some opportunities to meet people, and the importance of doing this cannot be overstated.

    Social networks, alongside family, are the foundation of a society, and the thing with platforms like Facebook is that often, the algorithms create an echo chamber, where one social circle never mixes with another, and you never even hear any opinions other than those you already agree with. This isolates you from society at large, in a way that’s not unlike being in a cult. When you join a hobby group however, you’re going to meet a much more random cross-section of people, and this is a healthy thing. Yes, you may meet some people whose beliefs and politics you don’t agree with, but the mere exposure to this will help keep you grounded. This sort of interaction reminds us that we are diverse in our backgrounds and beliefs, but that we can still share common interests. Finding that common ground, as a means to counteract the “Facebook Effect”, and to broaden our social perspective, is vitally important, I believe, in keeping our societies functional. And as I said, you may find a hot date in the process.

    Another reason for people to adopt a hobby is that they actually keep you young and healthy, in a number of ways. Studies have shown that people who spend time engaged in hobbies tend to have better psychological and physical functioning overall than those who don’t. Firstly, being engaged in an immersive activity tends to stimulate your brain and reduce stress, and this means that you tend to be “sharper” in general, and have better long-term cognitive outcomes as you age. Secondly, the simple act of doing something you enjoy actually helps alleviate depression. A number of studies have looked at this, and some doctors will even prescribe taking up a hobby to people with mild depressive symptoms, in lieu of anti-depressants. Finally, a physical hobby, whatever it may be, is a key ingredient in staying healthy in the long term. If you don’t use it, you lose it, and that’s why most health experts will tell you that something like 30 minutes of physical activity a day is a bare minimum for maintaining your health. Stretching, going for a walk – these are a good start, but if you can manage to find some kind of physical activity that actually interests you, then it won’t seem like work. I know a lot of people will say that they’re allergic to exercise, but even if nothing on Earth could drag you into a gym, there is still something out there for you. The trick, I think, is starting small and forming a habit out of being more active. A lot of us may have negative associations with sports, we may feel generally uncomfortable with our bodies, or feel like we don’t know where to start, but all of these hurdles can be overcome. Even if you have a physical handicap, there is always something you can do, and something is always better than nothing. If you feel like you need to consult a doctor, of course you should do so, but just remember that every day of our lives we are either growing weaker or growing stronger, and that decision is up to us.

    Finally, I just want to say, even though you may have heard it before, that you never know until you try. Explore a little. Say yes to everything. If you’re nervous, then feel the fear and do it anyway. Whatever it is, maybe you’ll suck, but so what? The fun is in getting better. The fun is in meeting new people. While I may not be American, I do believe that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are why we’re all here. Give yourself permission to pursue your happiness. Thank you for joining me, and I hope to see you all again next time.

So, You Want to Teach in Japan

     So, You Want to Teach in Japan

    Konnichiwa, I am Lucas, and welcome to my humble podcast. Today, inevitably, I have to talk a little more about what it is I do, and what I have been doing now for over ten years. As some of you know, I am a teacher of English in Japan, and over the course of my time here, I have worked in both public and private schools, taught all ages from kindergarten through to retirees, and done so in a number of different areas and contexts. I’ve also done a fair amount of editing for English publications, and even a little bit of voice acting. My intention here is to share that experience, talk about what I’ve learned, explain the pros and cons of teaching English here to people who are considering it, go through which employers are better to work for, and maybe dive into some other related topics.

    So, for now let’s just pretend that you’re a potential employer and I’m explaining my background in an interview. I did go through my work briefly in my introductory podcast, but I want you to see what the ins and outs of the job are like, especially if you are thinking of doing this yourself. It’s good to note though, and they’ll tell you this often when you start teaching here: EVERY SITUATION IS DIFFERENT. Sometimes shockingly different. More on that later.

    Originally, I applied to the JET Programme, which is administered by the government of Japan, a few years after university. JET, in case you’re wondering, stands for Japan Exchange and Teaching, and its aims are to both place native English speakers in the public school system to assist the Japanese English teachers, and to promote cultural exchange between Japan and English speaking countries. At the time I applied, I had been working in a call center, wanted to see more of the world, and had always had a fascination with Japan, probably due to my lifelong obsession with the martial arts. I had taken judo in elementary school, aikido in high school and karate in university, and through them had developed quite a keen interest in Japan’s unique culture and history. So, you can imagine how delighted I was when I passed the interview process for JET and was told I was soon to be teaching in Beppu city, Oita prefecture, in lovely eastern Kyushu.

    In Beppu, I was employed by the prefecture, or “Ken”, as are most JETs. The Ken is the regional government, like the provinces in Canada or the states in the US, and it makes the decision about the hiring process for teachers. They also pay your salary. Some teachers are contracted by the regional Board of Education, usually those who teach in elementary schools, but it varies from region to region. In my case, the Ken decided to place me in a regional senior high school, which was my base school. Once a week, I was sent out to teach at a local junior high school, and once a month I went to teach at a special needs school. To be clear, this is not a typical arrangement, and other teachers had vastly different timetables.

    Overall, the job itself was a bit tough at first, because I only had a little teaching experience like occasionally teaching martial arts, and a co-op placement I did in high school as an assistant in an elementary school class. Generally they know to expect this though, as most new teachers are the same. After a while, I learned what the students needed to learn, what their ability levels were, what techniques worked well in class, and became good enough at my job that they seemed happy to renew my contract when the time came. I think the biggest assets that anyone can bring to the job, or at least the ones that helped me most, are open-mindedness, a willingness to improve, and flexibility. In making that initial adjustment to a new culture I may have had it easier than a lot of people, because I knew a lot about the culture to begin with. If you’re open-minded and flexible however, this can really help to get you through any rough spots you may encounter. And, as with any profession, a willingness to improve, especially one you demonstrate consistently, will make people in your work environment not only like you more, but want to help you succeed. You will absolutely need the support of those around you in this place, especially if your Japanese is limited, so giving back where you can and being a team player is hugely important.

    I stayed in Beppu for two years, but then was transferred to Oita city nearby in year three when teaching positions were reshuffled. During this time, my biggest priority was learning Japanese, because I had come with virtually none. This is not uncommon, but it doesn’t make life easy. I took the introductory Japanese course offered through the JET Programme, and basically became competent enough to read things phonetically and use basic expressions. I also made a lot of new friends through the JET community, many of which I keep in touch with to this day. The JET community is good at helping with social networking, and I tried my best to be engaged with the community where I could, taking part in charity activities and helping to organize social events.

    After three years, I began to get a little homesick, and decided to go back to Canada. Originally, my intention was to establish a career in the government. The timing, however, didn’t end up working out in my favor. I went back to Canada in 2008, when the Great Recession was pretty much in full swing. For those of you who don’t remember, after the housing bubble burst in the US, it had knock-on ramifications for economies all over the developed world, and even though Canada wasn’t hit as hard as some countries, there wasn’t a lot of hiring going on. I had to improvise and take what was available, and it turned out that short-term contracts were pretty much the only work around. Over the next few years, I did manage to get a lot of experience in government, but through contract work only, meaning that building a career was more or less out of the question. I moved from Kingston to Toronto to Ottawa, working in Human Resources, Administration and Social Services, but the lack of any job security was frankly exhausting. I finally decided after a few years that I had been better off in Japan, and so, in 2012, I reapplied to JET.

    To make a long story short, I got accepted again, but this time, I was assigned to go to Okinawa. It was basically like winning the lottery. Okinawa had been my first choice of placements, and having never had the chance to visit it the first time around, I was thrilled to be going. I was hired by the Board of Education on Miyakojima, a small island just east of Taiwan, and taught at six Junior High Schools. This time around, I was a little more experienced, and far from being a struggle, I felt I was truly in my element. I built on my knowledge to create a repertoire of strategies for teaching, and a collection of activities that would motivate students to learn while helping them to consolidate their knowledge. Over the course of the next five years, I refined my ideas, built on my experience, and tried to become the best teacher Miyakojima had ever seen. I tutored students for contests, homestays and tests, judged competitions, did a little voice acting, and met a lot of wonderful people. I also used my spare time to study Japanese, getting to a more intermediate level, and to gain as much volunteer experience as I could. I joined the local JET newsletter as Assistant Editor and moved up to Managing Editor, I represented the Okinawa chapter of Stonewall Japan, and was Block Leader for Miyakojima JET participants. The experience in team-building that came from this was invaluable, and has served me well ever since. I even tried some more unconventional lessons, like English cooking classes, and English Kung-Fu classes, to name a few. Coincidentally, I was also placed at a “future school”, where the Ministry of Education was testing a program to give tablets to every student and use touch-screen computers in class. In my experience it was very successful, and I guess the Ministry agreed, because this program is now being rolled out nationwide.

    As my time in Miyako drew to a close, I decided that I wanted to continue working as a teacher. I enjoyed the work, and frankly, I had become very good at it. My relationships with my students and fellow teachers were not only great but very rewarding, and Japan had become like my second home. So, with this in mind, I began applying to similar work. As it turned out, I found a position in Kitakyushu, with an English conversation school, or Eikaiwa.

    Private teaching was quite a different experience from JET, to say the least. Most notably, it was more demanding, as small language schools have a tighter budget, and depend on teaching as many classes as they can to maximize their income. I didn’t mind this, as I like keeping busy, but for some people it might be a bit much. With JET, you would often have large chunks of free time, because you are not the main teacher, but an assistant who helps as they are needed. With an Eikaiwa, you are the main teacher in many cases, and so you have to prepare, teach, mark assignments, and maintain discipline. The salaries are comparable, but for the work you have to do, Eikaiwa teachers should really earn more, and often don’t.

    In addition, in a public school, you have a boss (the principal, and ultimately, the prefecture), but they really don’t have much to do with you. You’re just another part of the “English team”, and you’re more or less left alone to do your job. In an Eikaiwa, you basically work with your boss every day. If you get a nice boss this can be fine, but if you are unlucky and get a boss that likes to micro-manage, for example, this can be a lot of stress. The hours are also…quite different. As conversation schools conduct the majority of their lessons after regular schools finish, you generally start in the afternoon with planning, teach younger kids when they finish around 3-5, and then the older kids between 5 and 10. I often got home around 11 at night. If you’re a night owl like I am this can work out, but if you like a 9-5 job, this option is not for you. Ultimately, it was a combination of these factors that lead me to leave the Eikaiwa after about a year and a half.

    After the Eikaiwa, I was looking to stay in Kitakyushu, but options were a bit limited, as it turned out. This was because over the last few years, Fukuoka has become dominated by the “dispatch” model, along with some other places in Japan. Allow me to explain. Boards of Education, who typically handle the selection and hiring process for teachers, sometimes don’t like the responsibility that comes with hiring and looking out for foreign teachers. Dispatch companies act as intermediaries, hiring and managing a roster of foreign teachers, who they then hire out to BOEs. On the surface, this may sound ok, but after working for a dispatch company, let me be clear: it is not.

    For lack of better options, I gave one of these companies a try last year, and here is what I’ve learned. For starters, private companies care about their bottom line first, and dispatch companies will place this above the welfare of the teachers they hire. To begin with, the money the company makes comes from what the BOE would, in other circumstances, pay directly to the teacher. There is no consideration given to how this might affect the quality of life for the teachers, they are simply expected to live on less while the company takes up to 30% of what would otherwise be the teacher’s salary. Further, because the teachers in a dispatch company are not considered “full time employees” but rather “contract employees”, it means that you only get paid for the days you work, and are given no sick days, no paid vacation, nothing. You also don’t get help with social insurance costs, which your employer would otherwise supplement. This entire business model, based on my experience, seems like a way to exploit teachers, expecting them to do the same work as JETs, but giving them as little as possible back in return. In case it was unclear, avoid this type of work at all costs.

    Aside from public schools, conversation schools and dispatch companies, there are other places and other ways to teach in Japan, such as in private schools. I did work in a private school while at the conversation school, although not directly, as the Eikeiwa had basically contracted me out. My experience was generally good, although since I wasn’t working for them directly, I can’t really say much about salary and benefits. What I know from general research is that because students (or rather their parents) pay a premium to attend private schools, they can afford to pay their teachers reasonably well, and offer competitive benefits. Because of this, they are generally considered the best type of employers for foreign teachers outside of the JET Programme, and sometimes they can even be better. One friend in Okinawa has been working at his private school for ten years, only has to work 4 days a week, makes very good money, and gets lots of vacation time. I’m sure he works hard, but I think I speak for many teachers when I say hard work is not a problem when an employer compensates us fairly and appreciates our experience.

    Finally, an option open to those with a Master’s degree is teaching at a university. As my degree is a BA in Psychology I have not done this myself, but know several friends who have. As you might imagine, universities will pay the most, and have competitive benefits. The downsides are that full-time employment can be difficult to find, and may take a long time to achieve. As for tenure, don’t hold your breath. It takes years. Also, these positions will often require you to be fairly fluent in Japanese, so that you can explain complex concepts to students. If you can get it though, it’s basically the holy grail of teaching gigs.

    In general, I’d say that teaching here in Japan has been an overwhelmingly positive experience for me. The last few years have been rough, due in part to the pandemic, but in a way the pandemic is working in our favor. Due to the fact that Japan isn’t letting many new foreign teachers in, the shortage of available teachers within the country means that schools are increasingly having a hard time filling these jobs, and as such are willing to offer slightly more. When I say slightly though, I do mean slightly. The trend over the last decade in teacher salaries has been steadily downward, and the pandemic has only mitigated that trend a little. Right now, the average pay for teachers is about 250,000\ a month, which is about 3000$ Canadian or 2400$ US. You’ll see some offers of 300,000\, mostly at private schools, but the average hasn’t budged much over the last year from what I have seen. Only recently have I seen offers creeping up toward the 280,000\ range, but some schools are apparently trying to take advantage of desperate teachers stuck here and looking for work, because I have seen some offers as laughably low as 150,000\ for full time work. I’m pretty sure convenience store workers make more. Also, as with the dispatch companies, many employers will try to cut corners on benefits, so this is very important to pay attention to. Social security and health care deductions can take a huge bite out of your paycheck, and if an employer doesn’t supplement these payments, it makes a big difference. Foreign workers should send a clear message by not accepting work with employers that insist on short-changing them, so that these practices are stamped out. They push the burden onto naïve foreign workers, taking advantage of the fact that they don’t fully understand the Japanese tax codes, labour laws, or labour market.

    In my opinion, for foreigners looking to work overseas, Japan is still an excellent option. Standards of living are high, the people are lovely, crime is basically a non-issue, and importantly their health care system is excellent. Also, the kids are a joy to teach, which is why I do this. That being said, it’s imperative for teachers to understand that companies will not look after your interests the way that privately funded or government-run institutions will. The profit motive, as far as I’m concerned, has no place in education, as it often causes corners to be cut and quality to decrease. The JET Programme, for that reason, is the gold standard, and I cannot recommend it enough. My experiences there definitely enriched my life.

    Even now, if you want to see the world, there are options. For me, the value of doing so still outweighs the risks and burdens that the pandemic has imposed, and vaccines are on the way. Living and working abroad changes you for the better in some fundamental ways, I truly believe that, just as I believe that the world will always need more people with a broader world view.

    If you are considering this sort of work, I hope this helped you to make a more informed decision, and I wish you the best of luck. Stay safe, of course, but never lose your sense of adventure.