Teaching English in Japan: Important Questions You Should Ask Recruiting Agencies

This article will focus on what you need to ask when choosing between recruiting agencies. For an introduction to recruiting agencies, see What You Need To Know About Recruiting Agencies.

Questions to Ask

Once you have a list of agencies offering the type of job you’re seeking, you need to ask some basic questions:

How are You Paid?

Are you paid per lesson or by hours on the job? Eikawa schools generally pay by the shift or month, and this means you speak directly to your superiors about any issues you have. In contrast, public schools can pay in a number of ways. If schools are paying you directly, or a board of education is paying you directly, then any issues you have with holidays, sick days, etc. should be taken up with them. If the school board pays the recruiting company and the recruiting company pays you, then any problems you have must be resolved through the company. This can be useful if your company is supportive, but working through a middleman can also be frustrating.

Is There Training and Support?

If this is your first time teaching, this question may be more important than how you get paid. Don’t be satisfied by a, “yes,” in this case. Ask about the training schedule and whether you can see a sample of the training manuals. Also ask for the contact information of current employees. If they refuse on the grounds of privacy it can be just that, but many agencies do have employees who volunteer to field questions. Whether the lack of references is a warning bell depends on how they answer the other questions. As a last resort, you can go into the message boards and find opinions on the training and support of just about every company, but take them with a grain of salt.

What Are the Benefits?

You need to know if you’re going to be enrolled in any benefit plans: health, pension, unemployment, etc. Generally speaking, most private companies have been skirting these issues with a, “don’t ask, don’t tell.” As a trade-off for a higher salary, foreign teachers are expected to arrange their own insurance, either with their home country in the form of extended travel coverage or with a Japanese firm. In reality, this results in a lot of un-insured foreigners praying that they don’t get seriously ill. If you are expected to carry your own insurance, make certain that the salary offered reflects that cost.

What Happens if I Get Sick?

This is stressing a point, but the reply tells you a lot about the company and the job. If being too sick to go to work results in you forfeiting salary, you might consider looking elsewhere.

Understanding Your Tradeoffs

A company that offers extensive training and support will probably offer a lower salary than a company that just places you (for a fee) and washes their hands. Similarly, company that enrolls you in benefit programs will withhold more salary than a company that doesn’t – you pay a premium to that company for taking the hassle of keeping your own insurance while in Japan. As long as you understand the trade-offs you’re making, you can find a company that suits you. It definitely involves more thought than simply going to the one with the highest salary.

Conclusion: Getting Out of the Recruiting Game

Once you find a company you like and have spent some time teaching in Japan, you’ll have more power to choose your next job if you want to stay. Living within Japan and having a valid working visa opens up many private jobs directly linked to a school board or the smaller, non-franchised eikawa schools with better terms. To compete for these positions, you’ll need to work on your Japanese, your teaching, and, most importantly, keep a record of the work you’ve already done in Japan.

Teaching English In Japan: What You Need To Know About Recruiting Agencies

Right now, getting a job in Japan usually means dealing with a recruiting agency, so this article is an introduction to recruiting agencies: why they exist, and the two types. Before we start, this article won’t specifically praise, lambaste, compare, or even mention any of the many agencies. There are many places on the internet where you can read specific criticisms and praise, but the impossibility of unanimous opinion on any particular agency combined with a complete lack impartiality minimizes the benefits of doing so.

Why Are There So Many?

The desire to learn English hasn’t waned in Japan, despite the end of the bubble economy that first prompted the dream of a bi-lingual Japan. Private eikaiwa (English conversation) schools will always be in demand as a hobby for older Japanese and a door to opportunities abroad for the younger generation. Changes in the public education system have now combined with the solid private demand to increase the overall need for ESL teachers.

Elementary English

English became mandatory for 5th and 6th graders in elementary schools in 2011. This does more than simply add two years to the current English curriculum. Elementary school teachers, at the time of this writing, aren’t trained to teach English as a subject at any point during their post-secondary degree. This is supposed to change by 2011, but native English speakers will be used as the stopgap measure until the kinks are worked out of the training program. In truth, the demand will likely remain until all untrained teachers have retired from the education system – that is, 30 to 50 years from now.

Japanese Exchange and Teaching Progamme (JET)

The nationally run JET Programme is proving too expensive for many educational boards that are seeing their overall budgets slashed even as their need for a native English teacher grows. To meet this demand, private companies have stepped in to make it more affordable to bring English teachers to Japan. Although JET is the best ticket to Japan for most people, the chances of getting on the program are dropping as the number of nationwide positions decrease. If you can’t get into JET, it doesn’t mean you should give up on coming to Japan.

Private or Public

The opening of the public system to private placements isn’t new, but they used to be much rarer. Now, if you are looking for a job in Japan, you have the choice of working at an eikawa school or within the public school system. Agencies generally specialize in one type and choosing between the two is a personal process.

Public School

Generally speaking, if you like children and teaching, going into the public school system will provide more job satisfaction. Working in the public school usually requires a lot of time and effort in the form of lesson planning and prep, so be clear on your reasons for wanting to work in Japan before you sign on.

English Conversation Schools

Eikawa schools, on the other hand, generally have prepared lessons and firm guidelines. This can be a great relief if you are teaching for the first time, but restrictive if you want to go beyond the guidebook. An eikawa school generally takes up less of your off-hours energy because most of the planning is already done, leaving you free to explore Japan. Both types can be deeply satisfying and a great way to experience Japan.

Summing Up

The explosion in the number of private companies offering teaching positions in Japan has increased the chances of finding a job. It has also increased the competition between companies trying to bring teachers over. In Important Questions You Should Ask Recruiters we look at how to measure each company and what questions you should be asking before you sign the contract.