I'm planning on JET too... from what I can see, the general pay and conditions of other English teaching jobs in Japan are around the point where I have to wonder if it's worth leaving my job and life here for it. I haven't looked into non-JET options all that well though.

I taught in a smaller company with a bunch of schools and enjoyed it. Every company (at home, too) has problems, but the worst part was the American managers. The Japanese staff were always great. Things may have changed, but the JETs told me they felt like drones and didn't really teach. They were props and no one took their ideas seriously. Didn't want to hear new ideas. In my company, I was thrown to the wolves from day one. But I wanted to teach and had complete autonomy, as long as tings went well. I controlled everything about my classes except time and who enrolled.
If you have an established career, why endanger that for a dead-end job, unless you have skills and speak Japanese enough to parlay that into something more in Japan.

Sounds like JET suits my needs better than it might yours - I'm not actually interested in teaching in a career and would prefer not to have complete autonomy in a class, although I find the whole idea of teaching a language interesting. I have a good (though young) career but want to do a bit of traveling before the whole settling down phase of my life... buying a house, starting my own business, getting married and all that jazz. I'm studying Japanese part time out of interest and living there for a year seems like a pretty good way to practice that and experience the culture firsthand.

I'm lucky (again) that my job in web design is easy enough to keep up with new developments in, and I'm planning on starting my own business when I return so leaving my job isn't a huge issue :)

Sounds like a plan.

I plan on moving to Tokyo Japan that is where i want to move when i turn 18 i still have 4 years to wait until i can move out of the house and learn to read Japanese and speak Japanese.>^_^<

Read a ton about Japanese culture and history and learn a bunch of anthropology to put it in perspective. You've got plenty of time to prepare and be successfull.

Wow, a lot of good advice. But what is this JET thing all about, what does it stand for? Also, are there any good exchange student programs available, or is JET one of those programs?

I'd still rather see how the dynamic is first as an assistant before attempting a full on teaching job. Besides, I don't have certification in TESL.That's how I feel, for the most part. I want to try something like JET first before considering trying to go to a private company and actually attempt teaching. I'd like to see what general techniques are learned first when teaching English as a foreign language.I made a topic about this a while ago... http://www.japanforum.com/forum/livi...s-alt-cir.html ...you can check it out.

Over all, JET stands for the Japan Exchange and Teaching programme, and is government run. It's pretty much a year-long job/exchange, but if you want to stay longer, you have the option of recontracting. The longest you can stay now is five years. The three jobs are, ALT (Assistant Language Teacher), CIR (Coordinator for International Relations), and SEA (Sports Exchange Adviser).

As an ALT, you're pretty much assisting the ELT (English Language Teacher). This position also requires the least amount of Japanese. You can do this job without having to know any Japanese.

For a CIR, you're usually a part of a corporation (if I'm not mistaken), so you definitely have to have proficient Japanese skill.

The SEA is a newer position, so I'm not sure of the requirements for that.

They pick out so many people out of the applicants every year. They just wrapped up for those who applied in 2007 for this year. Those applicants who got accepted are now being given their placements. You can make requests, but there's no guarantee that you'll get them. For me, my ideal location would be someplace in Hokkaido or northern Honshuu.

Anyway, you could always take a look at these sites...

JET Program - Official Website (USA)
JET Programme - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Actually, many of the CIR positions actually work in prefectural offices or city halls - usually some sort of local government position. Ah, the joys of working in a Japanese bureaucracy. Positions with non-profit organizations and sometimes corporations do exist too, though.

the qualifications for most ESL jobs in independant (i.e. not in the public school system) are that you be at least 21 years old and have a college degree of any kind. That's it. Your degree can be anything, you need no experience or education in teaching or ESL. those things help, because, depending on competition, a dude with such experience might look more qualifies. Most of the English techers I knew were young doofases with not a lot of experience. Just find a school or program you like and apply.