Best Companies to Apply to teach English
 

I'm planning a move later this year to Tokyo from San Francisco. I very much want to teach English there, and would like recommendations on which are the best five companies to which I might apply. Best in terms of pay, benefits and housing. Thanks very much.

I have only taught under the JET Program, but you can't choose your location. The pay, hours, and benefits are pretty darn good, though.

Depends, are you talking about being an ALT or working at a private english conversation school?

I believe the ideal is to be able to build your private client list during your first year, so that you can reach the 200,000/mo minimum to self-sponsor your visa renewal.

I'm an ALT with similar pay, hours, and benefits as JET.

I don't know much about the private companies but I would imagine JET would be the best choice simply because it is government run so you are not in danger of being screwed over on pay etc.

The language school/alt system seems pretty un-policed over here so far as I can tell from various tales I have heard

JET is more secure, yes. It can be more restrictive, harder to get into. I was turned down for JET based on my limited Japanese skills, I spoke too much and not enough. It was kind of ridiculous, I thought.

Japanese is required to be a JET? That's new.

Naw, it's required to be placed in a government job, at least that's what they told me. To be a JET ALT they wanted no Japanese ability at all.

Now, this is the second attempt I made to move to Japan. I applied to Jet after graduation from college, and that was a few years ago now. Can't say if the situation has changed, but that's what they told me.

Part of my JET ALT interview was in Japanese...but I know Japanese wasn't required, though for the school they placed me in, Japanese pretty much was required.

Huh. Not my experience at all. No telling really. I certainly felt their reaction to me was weak and dismissive.

I wonder if I said or did something to axe the interview, and they were searching for something to tell me. Hope I didn't have toilet paper stuck to my shoe or something equally as embarrassing I never saw myself!

Immaterial now. I know I'm qualified, so it doesn't much matter.

This was also over a decade ago for me, so things might have changed...