Job Discussion Forums

eslteacherlooking · Joined: 18 Nov 2008 Posts: 32

Hi! I have searched and rifled through the dozens and dozens of posts on Interac and I still have a few questions on some points that weren't so clear to me. I hope you can answer them!

HOUSING

1. Interac does help you secure housing, however is this housing in your name? I mean when you leave interac can you stay in your housing? Will they help you secure housing that will be yours even when your contract is over?

2. If you did secure your own housing was it easy to find a place that did not require a gurantor, deposit, or key money or "system fee"? If you did have to pay those fees did you get them back when you moved out?

3. How far is your commute to your workplace?

SALARY & BENEFITS

1. The monthly "bonus"allowance is 20,000 yen. Has this ever been with held from you? Or can you expect to always receive it if you get your paperwork in on time?

2. If you stay for another contract can you expect a raise?

3. Is there a completion bonus for the contract?

4. Do you pay into the pension?

5. What is the name of the health care system? Is it one of the two japanese national programs like shakai hoken?

WORK

1. How many schools do you work at?

2. Are any of you placed in the suburbs of Tokyo: Chiba, Saitama, Kanagawa? How far away from the center of tokyo are you? Train time wise?

Thank you! I hope this wasn't too long.

AgentMulderUK · Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 6:38 pm Post subject:

I suggest you ask Interac first hand for some of your factual questions regarding their conditions.

They will expect people to be asking such questions and have Fiction..err opps Information documents standing by for that very purpose.

Anyone posting here will likely be biased due to past bad experiences (me) or might have worked for them when conditions were different anyway.

Not only that but it's possible what what applies to you doesn't apply to them. I have seen 2 people working for the same company (Interac as it happens) with small difference in their contracts.

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

Some of the answers may depend on what branch office you work out of (like how many schools you work at, and what the location is). I wouldn't worry about either. There is nothing you can do about them.

Bonuses being withheld.
Interac has been notorious in the past for paying half the salary on time and half 10 days late. Union activity didn't seem to change that. Don't know the current situation, but nobody has seemed to report that in the last 2-3 years. Check with the union www.generalunion.org for more info.

Housing.
If Interac doesn't have its own housing, as you suggested, but merely helps you find something, then it is in your name. Besides, they can't kick you out even if it is in their name. The law says you need about 6 months lead time for that from any landlord, although many people have already secured another job and corresponding housing anyway, so it is a moot point for most.

Re:

Apsara · Joined: 20 Sep 2005 Posts: 2142 Location: Tokyo, Japan

There are places like Sakura House that rent apartments (usually furnished) with perhaps just a small deposit, which you would get all or most of back. Otherwise just gaijin houses fit your description, although even they usually require some kind of deposit. Oh, and the very high end serviced apartments for expats.

If you move into an ordinary apartment and pay the agency fee, key money, deposit etc, the only part of that you will see again is some of the deposit.

southofreality · Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Posts: 579 Location: Tokyo

eslteacherlooking · Joined: 18 Nov 2008 Posts: 32

if you're the only english teacher plopped down in a school or schools how easy was it to meet new people and make friends?

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

JL · Joined: 26 Oct 2008 Posts: 241 Location: Las Vegas, NV USA

Southofreality,
"You'll still need to use a guarantor company if you don't have a guarantor. Usually 1/2 month's rent."
I'd like to learn more about this option. In June, when I was last in Japan, I spoke outside an apartment agency with an agent, about the possibility of finding accomodations not requiring a guarantor. He told me that these are becoming more common these days, but are mostly for older places that otherwise are getting hard to rent out. And that their availability is spotty.
Could you (or anyone here with knowledge about this) give me more info. on this "guarantor company" option? Or, is there a website or forum you could direct me to that has more info on this? This is something I didn't really know about.
Thanks in advance.

southofreality · Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Posts: 579 Location: Tokyo

JL · Joined: 26 Oct 2008 Posts: 241 Location: Las Vegas, NV USA

"...they usually won't show you a property unless they know it's gaijin-OK, accepts use of a guarantor company, etc...

Yes. In prior stints in Japan, some of the worst discrimination I've dealt with, was during apartment hunting. But what I didn't really know about, and what I'd like to ask about, is these "guarantor companies." Who are some of them? How do I find them? Thanks.

taikibansei · Joined: 14 Sep 2004 Posts: 811 Location: Japan

reasonJP · Joined: 17 Jul 2008 Posts: 48

I used a guarantor company to get my apartment, and yeah it was pretty easy, the estate agent hooked me up. It was a one off payment of 60,000 yen (I pay 72 in rent) and that's it.

JL · Joined: 26 Oct 2008 Posts: 241 Location: Las Vegas, NV USA

Taikibansei,
Thanks for the link and for the name of that type of company. Much appreciated. I'll start looking into it, pronto.

(Reason, thanks too, for the input.)

degolasse · Joined: 26 Jan 2007 Posts: 21

First off, the most important thing to realize when trying to predict how things will work out with Interac is that pretty much everything is done on a case by case basis. All your questions will depend on whether you are rural or urban, what branch you work for, who your IC (helper person) is, whether or not the teacher you are replacing was Interac or JET (often the case), and even what time of year you start. I probably have 30 or so friends that worked with Interac and I swear we all had different contracts and completely different work and housing situations.
You can try to ask them these questions, but the second thing to remember is that Interac will tell you a hundred different answers to the same questions, and you'll never know exactly what you're going to get until you're there.
Thirdly, until you are promised a specific position and location (and even if you are) never get too excited about getting a location that you want. You can hope for Tokyo, and they can tell you that they'll send you to Tokyo, but until you are actually on the job in Tokyo, you can expect that there is still are huge chance that they'll send you to rural Kyushuu. I had my location changed twice in the week before I arrived in Japan. I also have a friend who was told during training, a couple days before she was supposed to start work, that instead of heading to downtown Hiroshima, she was now going to be sent to a small Island on the Inland Sea.
So, we can all try to answer these questions for you, but chances are, you'll have different experience than all of us. But for what it's work, I will answer these questions based on my experience. I'm not jaded by Interac like alot of people. Yup, they were incredibly disorganized and all over the board with the things they promised. But in the end I got even more than originally promised, had few bad experiences with them, and had a wonderful year in a beautiful town that I will long to return to for the rest of my life. I was in a very small town in the mountains of Okayama-ken. I worked for the Hiroshima Interac branch.

Interac does help you secure housing, however is this housing in your name? I mean when you leave interac can you stay in your housing? Will they help you secure housing that will be yours even when your contract is over?
---- Can't really help you here. I don't know the legalities of it, and I didn't really care - In my town I had the sole job available to a non-Japanese speaker, and so leaving Interac would mean leaving my town and my apartment no matter who's name it was in.

If you did secure your own housing was it easy to find a place that did not require a gurantor, deposit, or key money or "system fee"? If you did have to pay those fees did you get them back when you moved out?
-----Absolutely all my fees were taken care of by Interac initially. I payed first months rent when I moved in and that's it. The only extra thing I paid was the amount of deposit that Interac did not get back when I left, which was around 20,000 yen or so off my final paycheck.

How far is your commute to your workplace?
------My commute was either a 5 minute walk, or a 20, 35, or 45 minute drive, depending on what school I worked at. Some people bike, some people take the train everyday, and some like myself are given a car for the journey.

The monthly "bonus"allowance is 20,000 yen. Has this ever been with held from you? Or can you expect to always receive it if you get your paperwork in on time?
----my pay was 255,000/mo + a 5000 bonus which was never held from me. If you do your job properly and get your paperwork in, you should get it all. You can also get up to 20,000 toward transportation depending on your need. I got a 8000/mo which was actually far more than I ever spent on gas getting to school, though I suppose the extra should have been used on car maintenance.

If you stay for another contract can you expect a raise?
----- I was never offered one on my second contract, and I've never heard of it happening, though you may be offered extra positions such as regional advisor/supervisor which may come with some extra pay. I wouldn't hold your breath for this though.

Is there a completion bonus for the contract?
-----My completion bonus for my first contract (6months) was 200,000 yen to pay off my interest free car loan. On my second contract there was a 100,000 yen bonus which I never got because I broke my contract.

Do you pay into the pension?
-----The only deductions listed on my pay slip are Health Insurance and Taxes.

What is the name of the health care system? Is it one of the two japanese national programs like shakai hoken?
----Interac uses a health company called InterGlobal. I don't know much about it really or how it all works and I never had to go the doctor so I don't know how claims work.

How many schools do you work at?
-----I worked at 4 Junior Highs, and occasionally at 2 other Elementary. I know lots of people who worked at one school full time, and one guy who rotated between 28 different schools. All depends one the school board you are sent to and it's not under Interac's control. It would be a small miracle if Interac can even accurately tell you how many you'll work at until you actually start.

Are any of you placed in the suburbs of Tokyo: Chiba, Saitama, Kanagawa? How far away from the center of tokyo are you? Train time wise?
Nope, sorry. Not even close.

If you're the only english teacher plopped down in a school or schools how easy was it to meet new people and make friends?
----- This was definitely my case. I was one of two Western foreigners living in town, and since he and all my predecessors commuted from a nearby city, I was the only western to have lived in the town in years. I found Japanese people very friendly and welcoming, but also very shy. Most of my coworkers weren't too likely to strike up a conversation with me, and rarely invited me to things outside school - even the English teachers who I worked directly with. I also had the problem that when I did get an invite, I was rarely able to accept because I spent every weekend roaming around the country. However, about 7 or 8 months in, as my Japanese skills became somewhat functional and I started spending more time in my town, I started hanging out with a couple teachers outside of school and made some other really good friends in the community. I found I also began to make friends amongst coworkers once I start attending extra curricular sporting events and showed up at community festivals and events. The key is to get involved with your community and not become just a random person at your desk like I was for the first few months I was there.
This is not to say though that I was ever without friends. As a foreigner you will almost surely automatically fall into a circle of foreigners. Even if you are pretty remote, there will be a bigger town nearby where all the foreigners in the area will gravitate. Chances are this foreigner crew will have attached to it a posse of Japanese folks with good English.
You'll be fine, make an effort to meet people, never turn down an invite, get involved, and you'll find yourself with loads of Japanese and foreign friends.

Hope this helps.

eslteacherlooking · Joined: 18 Nov 2008 Posts: 32

Deolasse thanks for the reply!

What happens when you expect to be in a certain area, in my case outside of tokyo or nearby tokyo, and they cannot place you there?

I mean if youre in japan like your friend and in training and all of a sudden you find out you're going to a remote island I would hope they understand if you back out. And it wouldn't burn any bridges.