Job Discussion Forums

[Black_Beer_Man]

I don't know about most foreigners in Japan, but as an English teacher, I find it difficult to earn much money and save much of it given the relatively low salaries most language schools are paying out these days. The cost of living in Japan, especially the health insurance and residence tax, is very high.

I remember a teacher working for Interac saying that the pop song that describes his family's living situation was "Money's Too Tight To Mention" by Simply Red.

Yet, I still see many foreigners enjoying living in Tokyo with no plans to go home.

I assume some teachers are doing well financially, so I've decided to check with this poll.

If you want to leave a comment, you might tell us what kind of school you work in, what portion of your salary (percentage) you're able to keep after your apartment rent and other living expenses are deducted, and tricks you use to cut down on expenses.

[mitsui]

Terrible. Rent is a lot but even AU adds up. I think it is time to ditch the home phone.
Frankly I think if I stay I would live farther out and take a bus to a train station. It is all about distance to central Tokyo.

The farther out one lives means health insurance is cheaper. Kawasaki must charge me 30,000 a month.
Taxes are a lot but I do get refunds.

I read that many Japanese are taking second jobs. I believe it. I work at four universities and an eikaiwa. I need one more job or 2-4 more university classes.

[currentaffairs]

I had a great time in Japan but I didn’t save much. Saying that, I did go partying a lot most weekends. You can save but that means being fairly frugal.

The first two years were the toughest. You have to pay a lot of money to move into an apartment, and it took time to fill out my week with work.

I would recommend looking into the UR scheme in the Tokyo area. This is a government-run scheme and rents are reasonable and there is no key money. Some of the apartments are huge and it was a big upgrade from my tiny box apartment..

[mitsui]

UR permits one pet only. I have two.
UR is not always cheap. It depends on the size of the place, and if it is older or newer.
Older places with no elevator can be quite reasonable.

[steki47]

I am doing rather well. Broke into uni work 3 years ago and having been saving most of the extra salary. 5 years in dispatch ALT taught me to scrimp and save. J-wife usually works, no kids.

Bought a condo in a major city. 20% down payment and a 10-year loan.

Some downsides tbh. Wife is having health problems and can't work this year. Uni work is great but not stable employment.

[TokyoLiz]

It really depends what kind of teacher you are and where you live, doesn’t it? Eikaiwa employee, dispatch ALT, university instructor, private high school teacher, or an international school teacher. The income could be anywhere from ¥200,000 to ¥500,000 + / mo from what I read here, and see in job listings.

I just had a big lifestyle change - ex partner moved out, gave up the 4LDK with enormous garden we rented for¥70,000/mo. I’m in a 1LDK apartment on my own, still east of Tokyo. Though moving and initial costs stung, I’m doing well enough that I can recover my finances within two months. The bills are cheaper now, and I’m not feeding two people anymore.

[rxk22]

I think the difference between being single or with someone, and then having kids is pretty significant. When I first was an ALT, my GF and I moved into together. SHe went to college, and I paid for most everything. We weren't doing great, but it wasn't bad at all.
Being married with kids, things are tough. We still rent, and both work. If we didn't have kids things would be much easier.
Having kids here is more expensive, and more importantly time consuming. Lots of stupid little detail things that pop up and make it hard

[marley'sghost]

I voted "Just doing okay". But that's because there was no option between that and "Money's too tight to mention." and I'm a hopeless optimist.
I'm married, 2 teenagers, wife is stay at home mom. I'm a dispatch ALT, pull in another 3-4万 a month now through private lessons, (often more, sometimes less) we have some real estate back home in way of a nest egg.
So I say we are doing okay, but we live really simply and there is not a lot left over at the end of the month.
We are like, no car, no family trips, eating out is a rare treat, no big tv or iphones or anything. We live in a small 3ldk a stone's throw from the train station.
I'm a man of pretty simple tastes too. I doubt I spend much more than 1万 a month on booze, snacks, movies and hobbies and that's just all right.
Not everyone could live within our means. And there are times money is.....not a problem, but there are times that I regret we've had to to pass experiences and travel and socializing for lack of it.

[rxk22]

[Black_Beer_Man]

I started this thread because, in my opinion, being an English teacher in Japan has gotten difficult.

It's my second stint in Japan. During my first stint in the late 90's, no teacher ever made less than 250,000 yen / month. The government let us buy private heath insurance that, in my case, was only 8000 yen / month (which also covered prescription medications).

Now, I see ads for ALT jobs on Dave's that have the nerve to start people at 170,000 yen / month. And the gov. forces everybody to buy its overpriced national health insurance.

A couple of years ago, like mistui on this board, I was paying 30,000 yen / month. I quickly realized that this was a rip-off when I checked the traveler's health insurance rates in my country for a 30 day stay in Japan. It was around 10,000 yen with 100% coverage.

It's my guess that to compensate for the higher costs of living vs the stagnated or declining salaries, most teachers have to take on additional teaching gigs.

[mitsui]

Yep. I teach eikaiwa once a week. I might have to do it more.
I go out to Chiba on Friday, near where Liz probably lives (Noda).

I have two dogs and they have health bills. Wife had surgery twice and I had cataract surgery this year.

I guess if I can go back to full-time work the employer can pay part of the health insurance and then I can get a housing allowance again.

[The Transformer]

Things have gotten tougher in the last 10 years, with the Nova crash, the recession, and the GEOS crashes razing the eikaiwa and ALT industries to the ground. Starting salaries haven't changed much in eikaiwa but the pay bands have contracted big time, so that the potential earnings in an eikaiwa instructor job are probably about 70-75% of what they once were.

Back in the good old days, it was possible to be earning 300k a month after even just a couple of years with an eikaiwa as a regular instructor, and in a few more years be getting closer to earning even 350k a month. Nowadays, after a couple of years, you'll probably earn around 260k a month tops and that will be it. If you want to earn more, you'll have to take on extra work or get promoted.

People with MAs tend to do better. I know one guy nearly in his mid-40s who's been in Japan knocking on 20 years, working in eikaiwa for years, then in a gakuen for about 10 years, and he recently completed a TESOL Master's and landed a full-time job at a uni. You have to invest in yourself and spend time, money and effort skilling up if you want to earn more and have the chance of a more secure, stable career (and the sooner you do it the better, as it only gets harder as you get older).

Back in the good old days, you could simply cruise along in 2nd gear most of the time and get those nice 10k per month bonuses each year with little trouble. Those days are well-and-truly gone in Japan.

I think the way the world is going generally, the "gig economy" is the future. Full-time jobs will get scarcer and you'll have to be working several jobs, perhaps a mix of part-time employment with different employers, and working freelance/self-employed as well, in order to make a living. Investing your money in "tangible assets", things that actually maintain and appreciate in value, will also become more important.

That's the way things are going everywhere. Better to get used to it.

[taikibansei]

I've posted links to the exact figures before: basically, university faculty here earn over 500,000 yen/month on average. They get lots of other perks too.

There are nearly 800 Japanese universities (including two-year colleges). Currently, there are over 21,000 foreigners working at these schools. Of this number, 8099 are full-time with tenure.

I (and others) have posted and posted here on how to get these jobs. That said, finding a full-time university position is about to become much more difficult, as the big hiring push (that I reported on here four years ago) has come to an end. Still, good jobs remain available.

[kzjohn]

You need another choice in your poll:

[taikibansei]