English teachers
 

Don't mean to be disrespecful but how much money do English teachers in Japan make?

Ive read that teachers with the JET program make 250,000 yen a month. Just above the national minimum wage. But take that with a grain of salt, im not a JET, ASL, or even in japan.

DB

You heard wrong. JETS actually make a bit more a month at 300,000 or 3,600,000 a year. Other companies usually offer 250,000-252,000 a month.

Do they provide accommodation for free? Surely it would be pretty tough to survive on that otherwise...

Correct. The JET wage is 3.6 million yen per year, 300,000 per month. That rate is tax free, but you do have to pay for mandatory health insurance and a retirement pension. You may collect the money from the retirement pension when your contract ends and you leave Japan. It is far more than you need to live on. I was able to save nearly $25,000 in 2 years and bought a car, computer, furniture, and got an apartment when I came back, and I still had many thousands left over to put into savings. And you don't need to live like a hermit to save that much, either... I traveled all over Japan, ate plenty of good food, bought 1500+ manga (and payed $850 to ship them all back to the US), flew back to the US to visit my family after the 1st year, etc.... the savings was after all of those activities and expenses!

Edit to add: A few places will either help with rent or provide accomodations free, but most don't, and mine didn't. I had to pay 48,000 yen/mo for a small, 1 room apartment. I still saved all that money... it really is quite a good salary. I have never earned as much since returning to the US.

Thanks for the heads-up guys/gals. Most of the information/blogs ive been reading seemed to be outdated anyway.

DB

Actually, interesting fact, the JET salary has not changed since the program began 20+ years ago...

That's absolutely true.

My school paid half of my 60,000 rent, which was nice. I still had more money than I knew what to do with.

Wow..I must have read things wrong then. Or, maybe im confused but I could have sworn some Alts blogged about their 250k a month. Maybe that is the bring home after taxes, insurance etc?

Shows how little I know.

DB

JETs don't pay taxes, they are government employees. But between health care insurance (non-refundable) and the retirement fund (which you do get back later), I think that might be about what the take-home is. I'm not sure because mine was always direct deposited, and it was 10 years ago.