EEducation in Japan

Teacher Water Cooler – Month of October 2025

  • September 30, 2025

Discuss the state of the teaching industry in Japan with your fellow teachers! Use this thread to discuss salary trends, companies, minor questions that don't warrant a whole post, and build a rapport with other members of the community.

Please keep discussions civilized. Mods will remove any offending posts.

by AutoModerator

6 comments

  1. Only made 90,000 yen for this month. I worked but not enough to make a full salary for summer. How do ALTs survive these days?

  2. In the month of October, if your salary is ¥220,000, you are making ¥1,200 per hour. Minimum wage in Japan is region, but Tokyo has a minimum wage of ¥1,163.

  3. Is anyone hunting for university jobs this year? How has it been? My turn is coming up quite soon so I’m wondering if it’s getting tougher yet.

  4. I just got back from our school’s 4-day school trip to Hokkaido. As a homeroom teacher, I was obliged to attend. Back in the day, foreign teachers were not invited to these things – not worth paying for us to go. I was happy with that. At my current place, the few foreign teachers are really treated as “just another regular teacher” in almost every way (including club and committee assignments) so it was off to Hokkaido with the students.

    I have to say, this was a reasonably well run trip. Busy but not wastefully so, and exhausting but not maliciously so. Better than most of my school trip experiences.

    I don’t know why, but I much prefer going to study camps than on trips. On study camps, I feel like I am actually there for a reason and have something to do, even if much of the time I’m just sitting in a room while students do their work. They also felt super low-pressure, in a way that school trips never do.

  5. Given Japan seems to be following America’s right wing slide are you being extra careful with politics in class? Normally there were just a few things I would avoid. Especially, when we have classes like Current Events in English or others which might intersect with politics.

  6. It’s not much pride these days, but it IS one small point… and especially why I continue to stay in Japan.

    Doing my taxes (filed an extension), and seeing how much I made when converted to USD… I can honestly say that even in 2025, I am STILL making more- several thousand more, in fact- than I ever was at home. And home for me is in New York State.

    So for all the complaints about a teaching salary being absolute shit in Japan… there absolutely are places even in America that make even LESS. And hence why I stay.

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