[samurai007]

They most definitely look farther than basic qualifications. The basic qualifications + your Statement of Purpose letter (of why you want to join JET) + your required letters of reference + your application are needed just to get to the interview stage, and even if you do all of that right, they still only have so much time to do interviews so they need to cut thousands of applicants without even meeting them unfortunately.

If you do make it to the interview, they look at your attitude, personality, how you answer their questions, your ability to speak in a tense situation, how they think you'd handle life in Japan and the job, etc. And even if you do well on all of that, there are only so many positions to be filled, and that number has been shrinking in recent years (there were once over 6000 JETs per year, it's now down to about 5000).

Finally, remember that JET is run by 3 separate govt agencies, only 1 of which has anything to do with teaching. The other 2 deal with foreign relations, and they seem want a variety of people who may (or may not) have at least some interest in Japan, teaching, or foreign relations, but not necessarily a rabid Japanophile. Such a person may not be a living breathing piece of foreignness transplanted into Japan to serve as a local level ambassador and teaching assistant, but might instead go completely native in Japan, practicing Japanese instead of speaking English, becoming indistinguishable from a Japanese person except maybe for his race. And that ISN'T what the JET program wants... it's 1 reason they set a limit on the number of years you can be on the program. (Used to be 3, recently increased to 5). They don't want the JETs to become "too Japanese" in language, customs, etc. Sure, it might make it easier for them to do their day to day job, but in the larger picture, their "island of foreignness" will have been eroded to a small barren atoll over the years there, and they want to keep refreshing that island, bringing in new blood to revitalize things, etc. Perhaps they felt his friend was "not foreign enough", as crazy as that may sound, but instead was out to just improve his Japanese ability and assimilate into Japanese society... ?