Finding a Job in Japan

Jason started looking for a job months before we moved to Japan. The idea of living off of one salary while also being in a country that encourages consumerism to the nth degree, while also wanting to travel, was scary.

So he got straight onto gaijinpot.com and other jobs in japan websites and started looking. There are also a lot of Facebook groups solely for the purpose of finding jobs in Japan, although a lot of these jobs are for people living in Japan already. There are exceptions though.

Jason was given a skype interview with English Instruction company NOVA. In the interview he was asked general informational questions, and also given some scenarios in which he was asked how he'd approach certain situations. They were fairly common sense questions.

After the interview he was offered a job, but upon getting more information about the job, it was a fairly shit excuse for a job. He was to be paid 1200 yen per hour (about 14 aussie dollars) and would have to work every single weekend. He got no holidays, and  if he called in sick, he would actually have to PAY the company a couple hundred yen per lesson he was supposed to teach that day, so they can cover his lessons!
 

Now, by foreigner in Japan standards, that wage is fine. Most jobs being advertised for foreigners in Japan seem to be between 800~1500yen. But as a teacher, I pretty much only get weekends off... so if Jason had to work every weekend, we wouldnt be able to do anything. So what's the point of being on a working holiday visa... 

 

Since we've moved to Japan, we've heard multiple people joke about how terrible NOVA is, with one of them even saying that NOVA means "No Vacation".

So we scratched that job. If we can't enjoy our time in Japan then we might as well be back in Aus...

Our next thing to try, aside from continuing to apply for jobs in gaijinpot, was the HelloWork centers. These are advertised on the Japanese Perth Embassy website as a way to help foreigners get a job. So surely it would be a foreigner friendly place to find a job...

That's where you're wrong, kiddo...

The HelloWork centers are available in most bigger Japanese cities. Jason went in to the Kobe one with big expectations. The website said that the allotted time for English speaking people was from 11 on Wednesdays. So he went in at this time and was told that their own website was wrong and he would have to some back at 1pm. 

 

Off to a good start....

So he returned at 1 and was met with an English translator whose English skills could only be described as "woefully lacking". After trying to get through some basic information like what sort of jobs he was looking for, she searched in her database for suitable positions,  printed off some jobs descriptions in Japanese and asked him for a Japanese copy of his resume.

 

 When he told her that he didnt have one, as he doesnt speak much Japanese, she told him that she would make him one and that he had to come in the next day to pick this resume up, although the interviews would be in Japanese...  Despite this being a time specifically for people who only speak English... In a place reccommended for foreigners to get a job... What good was an assistant who spoke some English if he then had to interview in Japanese?!

They told him that they would, when he picked up his resume the next day, call some of the positions to see if he could apply. He was told that some people might want an interview that day, or even straight away so he should come prepared to interview!

So he went in at his allotted time the next day, prepared for a possible interview in suit and tie, and was told that they had not yet done anything. No resume had been made, nor any calls. So once again, he had to leave and come back.

 This time they had printed his resume and gave him a few copies, telling him to mail them to the job places himself, a completely different situation than what he had been told the day before. There were no interviews. It seems like the entire two days was a bust, although at least he got a Japanese resume out of it.

Since then, Jason actually got an email from a job he applied for on gaijinpot. It's from another English instructing job, from a company called Cosmopolitan Village. They offered flexible hours, an unheard of 3000 yen per hour!

 They did a short phone interview (using someone elses phone as we've decided not to buy Japanese sims at this stage to save money) and he's going in to their office in Osaka monday to register as an instructor.

 

He will take clients as they come and will hopefully be able to take those clients in areas close to our home.
So I definitely reccommend gaijinpot as the best job finder in Japan. Hellowork, not so much. It's taken about 2 and a half weeks of being in Japan to get this job, for a time reference. I'm not saying that's standard, but that's what it took for my partner.  And he hasn't actually started yet. So if this job turns out to be too good to be true, or no hours, I'll let you know!

Getting a Working Holiday Visa for Japan

My husband, Jason gets to have a very different experience in Japan, as he is currently looking for work.

 My next post will be all about finding work in Japan, but before you do that, you need a visa. 

Jason got himself a working holiday visa before we left for Japan. If you have a job organised before  you come, you might be able to get a standard working visa, but if not, then working holiday is probably the easiest visa to get.

To do this, he had to fill out an application form from the Australian Japanese Embassy Perth website, attach a passport photo, write a letter about his reasons for wanting this visa, and he also had to include evidence of the following:

1. A valid Australian Passport (you actually have to post or bring this in with your application. If you live in Perth city, you must go in in person, but if youre outside the metro area you have to physically post your passport with a seperqte registered envelope with your passport so they can attach the visa to your passport and send it back to you).
2. Your resume in English
3. Your flight details, either return or one way. If you book only one way, you do have to show evidence of having extra money on top of the money already neccessary for the visa. 
4. Proof of funds- You need to be able to show proof of having saved 2500 Australian dollars to qualify for the working holiday Visa. This amount increases to 3500 if you apply as a couple. If you dont have flights booked and fully paid for, thus increases to 4000 and 6500 respectively. Evidence of this is shown in the form of printed bank statements.
5. Proposed schedule for first six months. The Embassy reccommends and encourages people to not stay in same place for more than 3 months, as you are there to travel. Jason and I will, of course, be staying in our apartment for a whole year. So to get around this, we listed our short holidays as "living somewhere". The itinerary needed is quite vague. So, for example, in February, Jason and I are travelling to Sapporo for a short weekend holiday, but each month on the itinerary you are just expected to list one place, so for that month he listed Sapporo. Then the month after, he listed that he'd be back in our area of Akashi. Hence, he has travelled. The month after, he might list Osaka, as we will definitely stay there a little bit.

The working holiday visa only lasts for 6 months, but you can easily get it restamped whilst in Japan by submiting your next 6 month plan.  Link to the embassy's working holiday info:  http://www.perth.au.emb-japan.go.jp/en/visiting_japan/visa_info/working_holiday_visa/index.html

If you send in all your information and application with your passport and a registered envelope, processing is usually pretty quick. I got mine back in 10 days. I think its a maximum of 2 weeks, unless theres something missing, in which case they'll call you (I reccommend calling them after a few days anyway just to check they've recieved it).

The visa itself is just a small passport sized paper glued into the passport. On arrival in Japan, they then take your passport at the airport and make your a residence card quickly while you stand at the arrival desk.

 You won't need to find this desk or anything, everyone goes through it to get into the country, your process might just be a little longer than your usual holiday process of getting your passport stamped.

All in all, it was a much less painful process than we imagined and the residence cards are pretty cool. One thing I reccommend is having your address in Japan written down because you will be asked to fill this out on entry cards. 

Day to Day Differences Working at a Japanese School (Compared to Working in an Australian School)

I've been here in Japan for about 2 weeks now, and I've just been at the school for a total of 3 days, and already the differences are huge! There's a big learning curb when changing from an Aussie school environment to a Japanese one!

A lot of that is just that in Australia I'm a fully qualified teacher, running my own program and am rushed off my feet most days, whereas here in Japan, I'm an Assistant Language Teacher with very little planning to do, who largely waits to be called upon for English questions and demonstrations. That in itself is a big adjustment, but one I am worried will become far too easy to get used to!


Apart from that obvious difference in job description, allow me to outline the differences in school life that will most likely affect your job if you're interested in working in a Japanese school environment at some point, or are simply interested in the education system around the world.


1. Entering the School
The first thing you need to do when you come to any school in Japan is take off your shoes at the entrance, put them in a locker, and put on a pair of small, cold school slippers. If you don't want to do this each morning, then you need to bring in a pair of designated school shoes. These will then not leave the school building. You will change into them when you arrive at the school entrance and change out of them at the end of the day. That way, all of your messy "outside dirt" supposedly stays outside.

2. Dress Code
Japanese schools tend to be a lot more formal than Australian Schools, but that being said, every school is different and so it's best to dress formal on your first day and then assess what your collegues are wearing. At my school in Australia I would commonly wear black jeans or little dresses with leggings underneath. Singlets were common in Summer. In Japan however, most men where suits, and women are usually wearing smart, very modest clothes. This usually means no singlets, as showing shoulders and collarbones is generally a no-no in schools. Most schools won't allow you to show tattoos either, although the school I'm currently at does, as part of it's multicultural diversity push. I'm here to show them authentic Western culture and part of that is a relaxed attitude toward tattoos.


3. The Lessons and Behaviour Management
The lessons are very different to what we're used to in Aus. In Australia, I'm clocking up a lot of steps (usually over 10 000 a day), making sure students are on task, handing out pencils, restating the instructions to those who didn't listen the first few times, and trying to get those unmotivated students to do something... Here in Japan, despite there being 40 students in each lesson,  I'm lucky to get 5000 steps. Teachers expect students to listen to and follow the instructions. I'm sure it will differ from school to school, but there's very little "telling off" or behaviour management of any kind going on at my current Japanese school. An English teacher I was working with today had set homework for the class the lesson before, and then, at the beginning of this class, asked them to get it out and discuss their answers with a partner, trying to use full sentences. I asked him if any students ever didn't do their homework, and whether he ever had to punish any students. He responded that he expected that nearly all the students would always do their homework. He does not punish the students, as he sees himself as a "facilitator of learning". He said that he is simply giving them the best chance to learn English. Most of the students are very motivated to learn English, and so he finds it better to give encouragement. This seems to be a similar approach as a lot of the teachers here. I am yet to see a reprimand. I asked if there was a detention system at this school, and there is not. Occasionally a student may be given cleaning duty, but apparently it is rarely needed. Can you imagine?


I have not seen any students get sent out of class, or students asked to stay back and talk to the teacher. Students are chatty at the beginning of classes, but the teacher usually does not tell them to be quiet. The teacher usually starts talking and the students quiet down quickly as they want to listen to the instructions so they can succeed. Classes here are very silent when doing tests and quiet work, and are chatty during discussions and activity transitions. The fact that nearly all students have this expectation that they should be doing well is something very different from a lot of my classes in Australia, especially when it comes to learning another language.  Again though, there are better and worse schools in Japan, so I'd expect a range of motivation depending on the school.


Lessons here are, surprisingly, very cooperative. I say surprisingly because I did have this idea that Japanese schooling is largely rote learning, and I imagined students reciting lines and vocabulary repretitively. I guess this idea is outdated, at least in my school. English is learnt very cooperatively, with students doing large amounts of peer and group activities. I think Japan is try to move away from rote learning, and use more cooperative and critical skills. There is a lot of speaking and listening happening, as well as writing. This also surprised me as many Japanese talk of a lack of speaking skills being taught in schools. Again, I think Japanese schools have identified this as a weakness and are trying to rectify it.Most English lessons start off with a short chat time on sa chosen topic, or using chosen key words. Students also discuss, reason debate, and give different perspectives to eachother in English throuhout the lesson.


4. The Office
Japanese school offices are big open things where all the teachers are together. This is quite different to some Australian high  schools which give seperate offices to different departments. Here, everyone is squished in together, everyone owning or sharing a desk. When you come into the office in the morning you say "ohayou gozaimasu"(good morning) to everyone as you come in, and as you leave, people say "o tsukaresama de" (you must be tired).

Students come into the office fairly regularly to hand things in and get help. They always say "shitsurei shimasu" as they enter (sorry for the interuption/rudeness) and they bow and say this again as they leave. It's so polite!

Teachers in the office often are employed by the prefectural board of education, rather than the school. This means that teachers are often rotated between schools at the discretion of the board. They may be at a school just one year, or as long as 10 years.


5. Transport
Most Japanese staff and students come to school by train or bike. There are no special school buses like in Aus, and there is usually very little parking at schools. If you are not familiar with the Japanese train systems, they're super convenient. Find out what the closest stop to your school is, and then chuck that into google maps.

6.  Students
The students at my school are lovely. They see me as some cute foreign object, it seems, and that's fine. You'll probably have to get used to students going "kawaii" when you answer some questions or do certain things...

One big difference between the Japanese stdents here at my school and those back at my school in Australia is their preparedness, and responsibility. By second term, many of my Australians students had foregone pencil cases, instead, only bringing in a pencil, if that. Many students started the year without pencils, and by Term 3 and 4, some of my classes only had 50% of kids with even a writing implement. I'm currently in the Japanese students' last term, as their school year ends in April, and I have not seen a single student without an immaculately kept pencil case. They take pride in their possessions, and enjoy displaying cute pencil cases, cute pencils, and many students even bring folded blankets with them into class to help deal with the cold.

All students are wearing school uniform, including for girls, sailor bow ties, long socks, pleated skirt, ironed shirt, sweater and blazer. And for boys, pants, ironed shirt, tie, sweater and blazer. All students wear the same white school shoes which they change into on arrival. There are no exceptions. They are not allowed to wear make up and jewellery or die their hair. All this promotes uniformity and togetherness.


7. The Classroom
Students stay in the same class all day, with the exception of specialty classes, and teachers rotate through. This is the students class and they become like one big family. They eat in this class, clean this class, and study in this class. They even sometimes decorate this class. Within the class, they are in a seating plan. Seats are commonly individual in Japan, in vertical rows. At my school, they switch the seating plan about once a month so all students in the class must be cooperative with eachother.


8. Heating and Cooling
The staff office in the school is nice and warm. If you're sitting in here most of the day you can take off your coat and be comfortable in Winter. However, make the mistake of stepping outside the office without your coat and you may die... It's freezing. The classes are varying degrees of freezing all the way up to just warm enough. So layers are your friend.

In Summer, most Japanese schools don't have air conditioning. So with our modest clothing expectation I expect to not have a fun time in Summer.


There are so many differences between the 2 school lifestyles, I couldn't possibly list them all in one sitting. But I hope I've given you a vague idea of what to expect.

First day at work!

Today was my first day at work at my high school.  As expected, I was nervous as heck! I got up early and arrived at school a good 45 minutes before I was asked to be there...

What can I say, I wanted to find out what I would be doing and get started!

That's not really how it panned out though...

I sat at my desk, which I had been shown to on a very brief introduction to the school. I was hoping that someone would come and tell me what was happening, as I knew no one and knew nothing except that at 8:25 I was to do a self introduction to the other staff.

A teacher nearby asked me if I knew what my classes were, and I told him that I had no idea...
He looked shocked, and said "I think you can come to my classes today!" I was grateful I had been given something to do, although I still thought that someone would at some point give me some kind of orientation, or a schedule, or a map perhaps... Or maybe even an idea of what I was expected to be doing for the next year, starting with the next couple of weeks.

I nervously performed my introduction in Japanese, using a microphone so I could reach the entire office of around 30-40 people. Then I sat back at my desk and waited for the bell to go.

Once the first bell rang, the teacher who had told me I could come to his classes had left, leaving me confused. Was I supposed to have followed him somehow? Was I supposed to know where his class is and meet him there? Had he simply gone to the toilet, soon to return to take me to his class?

He returned in an hour or so and I asked him if I should be going with him. He responded "Not yet. In the afternoon". And with that, my only idea of what I was supposed to do today left, leaving me with no work, and no idea. I was quite confused.

Luckily some other assistant language teachers came into the office and basically told me not to worry. Things are quiet in the school at the moment due to high school students exams coming up so older students currently don't have classes. This means they spend a large amount of time in the office, watching youtube videos and on facebook. They encouraged me to bring in a book.

In the whole day of work, from 8-5, I only helped out with one class, in a minor role pronouncing some words. The rest of the day I did as they do in Rome and went on facebook, and studied Japanese, vowing to bring in much more homework next time.

The day passed slowly, and I can only hope that as I get into things, someone gives me more information. But for now, I might as well go with the flow and take each day as it comes. I mean, who am I to complain about too little responsibility...