Expert: Robert - 10/27/2009

Question
Hi there. At 27 years of age I currently manage our family owned, medium sized (24 staff) hospitality business. Next year however,  my loving girlfriend (who is japanese) has convinced me to take a break for a year and take a working holiday in Tokyo. Given my rather mediocre level of nihongo, teaching english seems to be my best chance of securing work and receiving a halfway reasonable level of income. It would seem from the majority of material I've poured over that most english schools require a minimum of a 4 year bachelor’s degree before they will consider hiring you, something I don't have. I'm from New Zealand and have acquired a working holiday visa. I have completed a two year business systems diploma, and over the years have developed a fairly appreciable level of organisation and managerial ability.  I won't be leaving for Japan until very early March, and at this stage, I probably won't be actively seeking employment until I land in Tokyo- I have a reasonably amount of savings to tide me over in this regard. My question is this... given my lack of accredited education, will I find getting an english teaching job a difficult prospect? I definitely have skills (well at least I think I do) to offer despite not having a degree. I'm fairly confident and well presented in person so will throwing on a flash suit and combing the various local eikaiwa's be a good approach? Any help in this regard would be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Answer
Hi,

The schools generally require a degree because the Japanese government requires having at least a B.A. to get a work visa. It was a bone thrown to the right-wing of Japanese politicians to say they are not letting in a lot of unskilled workers.
If you have a working holiday visa then you can work legally, and it is just a question of finding a school that will hire you -- either full or part time.
Most schools start hiring from Dec-Mar. since the Japanese school year starts from April.

There are many ways to find employment such as websites like ohayosensei.com, and local ex-pat magazines in Japan. Tokyo is a huge city so that is where most of the opportunities lie.

Some websites with good background info are also at
http://www.letsjapan.org
http://www.thejapanfaq.com
http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/190750/careers_and_job_hunting/work_...
http://www.eslteachersboard.com

Best of luck!

Robert