For recent grads, there are 3 roads into teaching in Japan but “eikaiwa” is the most heavily traveled road.

Teaching English Conversation in Japan “Eikaiwa” The Most Heavily Traveled Road
“Eikaiwa” refers to the teaching of English conversation and it’s billion dollar industry in Japan. These consist of your large chain schools like ECC, Berlitz, Geos & Aeon. They employ thousands of English teachers all over Japan and can be found in all but the tiniest cities. There are literally tons of private English schools dotting the country side.  All of them carrying out the task of teaching English to the Japanese.

What You Need to Teach
In order to get a job teaching English in Japan, you will need to be a college graduate from any field – (sorry but 2 year degrees won’t cut it.You need to be a native level fluent speaker of English. There are some that do find teaching jobs in Japan even though English is not their first language but this is more an exception than a rule.

Although there is no minimum wage, most teachers drag in  250,000 yen a month before taxes.Most work weeks will be 5 days. Don’t expect western stuff like weekends off. The “eikawa” business whirs like a motor on weekends and someone has to teach the students right? This means that most teachers work at least one Saturday or Sunday with another weekday off.Most school’s vacation packages are remarkably similar. Expect 2 weeks  of paid vacation and most national holiday off. Of course there will be a bit of difference between how many national holidays any given school observes, but expect 8 to 10 per year. It’s worth noting that ECC has the best vacation package of the monster chain schools and  arguably the  fewest complaints. To see a comparison chart outlining: working conditions, salaries, perks, accommodations, vacations days and recruitment methods for Geos, ECC, Berlitz and Aeon, click here.

Expect to work close to 40 hours per week. Each school is different but you can expect roughly 20 to 25 actual teaching hours per week with the rest being office hours.  Most schools also will provide you with health insurance or subsidize it. Most office hours get filled by preparing lessons, talking with students and taking class notes. Furthermore, teachers are sometimes expected to hand fliers as well. Make no mistake at the end of a typical day, you’ll know you worked. All in all when all the hours get counted, your typical teacher works about 40 hours per week.

Huge chain schools, mentioned in the previous paragraph, all have fixed curriculums. What this means is that you’ll be using their textbooks and other teaching materials. Those with little teaching experience often like these teaching conditios becasue it reduces stress and makes the headache of lesson planning go away.Creative types will probably find it a bit stifiling.

Students  assigned to a typical teacher schedule will probably be of all ages. Literally from 5 to 75 year olds. Some schools have only children as students like Amity English school and Peppy Kids Club. Other large chain schools like Gaba cater to only adults or adult private English lessons.Because of how cut-throat competitive this industry is, most schools cater ot all ages. Student wise, you can expect a healthy dose of children and young professionals like office ladies and salary men as they’re called to make up the bulk of who you teach.

Most of your large chain schools will provide you with some type of accommodations. This is a very big help as it’s difficult to find accommodations on your own without the help of a Japanese national. And it’s definitely not cheap. But the type provided will vary, you should expect things to be half the size of what you might find in most western countries. Furnishings are usually sparse and typically will be collections of things from departing teachers.