Job Discussion Forums

orinlouis · Joined: 13 Apr 2008 Posts: 31

Feel as if I'm gonna get slammed for this one, but here goes...

Was originally looking to teach in Japan some years ago, but after being denied (by NOVA!! wasn't too sad for them when they went under immediately after...), I became sidetracked and pursued other options (got a master's in English). Now, broke and not finding much work, suddenly, the Japan option seems like a fun idea again. Everyone around here is firing, not hiring. Understand, please, I am not looking to go to Japan only for the money, but it is a factor. So the question: seems as if Japan's about to have some problems, too. Will I be hard-pressed to find work, and decent paying work, at that? Not looking to buy a Mercedes, but college debt is attacking me. Not sure of other options...

Thanks in advance.

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

You're likely to end up in an entry level job -- eikaiwa or ALT from dispatch agency or JET. Pay is roughly 250,000 yen/month for the first 2 and 300,000 for JET.

Figure roughly half that salary goes to basic necessities. How you spend or save the rest is up to you.

The recession is indeed upon us. Declining birthrate doesn't help. Have heard some places like car companies are not only laying off their employees, but they are canceling contracts to teach English on site, too.

Do your homework, learn the market, polish your resume and choose.

cornishmuppet · Joined: 27 Mar 2004 Posts: 642 Location: Nagano, Japan

Don't worry about it, money's pretty much the reason I came, and certain the reason why I'm staying at the moment. Pound at 130 and all that...

It seems that jobs are pretty thin on the ground. Keep checking the listings on gaijinpot and here and any other site you know. Its probably a risky time to just turn up, but in a big city you can probably pick up something if you've got enough money to survive a month or two. Its always easier once you're in the system...

Good luck with it!

Brooks · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1369 Location: Sagamihara

yep, there is a recession here.
I can't say if it is worse than the US, but it is pretty bad.

Not far from where I live, over the last couple months two liquor stores have closed and a department store as well.

People are thinking about what they buy, and are thinking of saving their money.
There are still jobs available but don't expect more than 250,000 per month

Brooks · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1369 Location: Sagamihara

well I read that JPMorgan predicted these rates for GNP in the 4th quarter last year:

USA -3.8%
U.K. -5.9%
Japan -9%

So, as you can see, things are bad, but Japan has really been hit hard.

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

JP Morgan predicted -3.8% for the U.S.? Wow, they hit it right on the head.
Just finished watching an NHK show (we get NHK programming on cable, here) --got share it on this thread. It was about growing soup lines and day laborers in Japan. Looks like things are getting mighty bleak in the Land of the Rising Sun. Lots of white collar workers a losing their jobs and trying to get work as day laborers just to make ends meet. But there just isn't enough work to go around.
Nothing is forever, and so will this too pass. But for now, the sun looks to be setting in Japan...

orinlouis · Joined: 13 Apr 2008 Posts: 31

...can never be sure on here.

Muy helpful.
Thank you all very much.

Plan is probably to move ahead, then.
2,500 yen (even with half to expenses) is about 2,500 more than I'm making here, so...

Ah--another question: worth spending the month and $200 (USD) getting the (cheapo) TESL cert? I realize anything to make me stand out is good, but would this make that much of a difference?

G Cthulhu · Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 2:52 am Post subject:

flyer · Joined: 16 May 2003 Posts: 539 Location: Sapporo Japan

Yes, there is a recession, but the recession will have a far bigger impact on eikaiwa (Eng conversation schools) than ALTs in JHS.
But even there, some budgets could be cut?

But then again there is a recession in the USA too, so if you don't come you will still have the same problem

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

santafly · Joined: 04 Dec 2008 Posts: 14

No one mentioned that a feature of Japan's recession is that the value of the yen has gone up - a problem for Japan since their economy is all based on export and now people can't afford to buy their stuff.

If the Yen stays high and you are exchanging it to dollars this is clearly a good thing.

GambateBingBangBOOM · Joined: 04 Nov 2003 Posts: 2021 Location: Japan

According to a map I looked at in News Week, there is only one country in the world that has been hit as hard as Japan- I cant' remember which one, it was in Europe.

womblingfree · Joined: 04 Mar 2006 Posts: 826

Might want to change the title of this thread. According to the latest figures Japan's no longer in recession but a full-blown depression.

Output is down to 1983 levels, which means that all the gains made in the past 25 years have been wiped out in just a few months.

With even Japan's most successful companies posting huge losses and cutting tens of thousands of jobs it's going to be a very tough few years. Almost certainly tougher than the 90's.

Hoser · Joined: 19 Mar 2005 Posts: 694 Location: Toronto, Canada

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

Hoser, the high yen has killed the export market for a lot of manufacturers- it's not only the consumer electronics people that are suffering. Many of them have set prices in yen, and if they reduce those prices too far for overseas customers in order to mitigate some of the effect of the high yen, they will no longer cover their own costs in Japan, which haven't changed.

Because the yen is strong, the products have got more expensive at the other end, for someone. With consumer electronics, retailers may not have raised prices, but their profit margins will have dived, possibly resulting in smaller orders. Consumer spending is down in any case.

Industrial users of electronics just won't be buying right now. In the case of companies making industrial equipment like the one I was recently laid off by, their export market was just about wiped out in the space of a couple of months- nobody is buying their products any more, literally.

America is not Japan's only export market for electronics, by the way- but you knew that, didn't you Wink