Japan
Qualifications
In order to obtain a work visa, you must have a 3 or 4 year degree. For Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders, British, South Koreans, French and German, you may qualify for a working holiday visa. Visit here to see if you are eligible. The working holiday visa is good for 6 months and can only be extended once, for an additional 6 months. For those with significant teaching experience and no degree, another option is to apply for a Specialist in Humanities visa.
Types of English teaching jobs
The majority of jobs are in conversation schools (eikaiwas), then assistant language teaching and finally university teaching only for the most qualified. If you are just starting out teaching English, then you will be looking at teaching in an eikaiwa.
Salary
Salaries range from 230-270,000 yen/month for eikaiwas. After, rent, taxes and other expenses, most teachers are able to save about 75-100,000 yen/month if they are careful with their money.
JET teachers receive 300,000/month. The JET program is one of the best deals going on in Japan. You work in the Japanese public school system (almost exclusively in middle and high schools) as an ALT (assistant language teacher) to a Japanese teacher. No prior teaching experience is required, just a degree.
Salaries do increase significantly for university teachers, along with the expected qualifications (related Masters degree, publications, and Japanese language ability).
Working conditions
30-35 teaching hours/week for most eikaiwas and the work is predominantly in the evenings.
General information
Most of the big language school chains, known as the Big 4 (Nova, Aeon, Geos and ECC) recruit teachers from abroad and reimburse your airfare. The smaller schools predominantly hire from within Japan.
Links
http://www.eltnews.com
http://www.mofa.go.jp/j_info/visit/jet/outline.html
JET program
http://www.jalt.org – Japan Association of Language Teachers
http://www.gaijinpot.com/ - Forum on Japan, can have a lot of negativity about Japan from people who should have left years ago.
http://www.bigdaikon.com/ - JET Teacher’s forum
http://www.pricechecktokyo.com/
http://teaching-english-in-japan.net/
http://www.amityteachers.com/ - Children's school in Japan
