EEducation in Japan

Would like to hear from anyone who went through a university correspondence course (通信大学) to get a teaching licence.

  • October 15, 2025

Hi, everyone.

I've read through a few previous threads, but trying to gather some more information. If anyone would be willing to chat through private message, or share info on here for everyone, I'd really appreciate it.

I am looking to get a teaching licence for English in JHS. Current direct hire ALT with 16 years experience. Fluent in Japanese.

I've tried to go through my BOE to get the special licence, but they have many rules for acquiring it and are really overcomplicating it.

I'm now looking into the 通信大学 route. I know it will be at least two years of hard study, but I love studying and working towards a goal. I will continue working as an ALT while studying for the qualification.

I want to hear from people about which Uni you chose, your experiences on the course, schooling, coursework, costs, documentation you needed to provide to prove your degree in your home country, whatever you can tell me, really. Also, any negatives, what unis to avoid, potential pitfalls, differences in coursework to what a western uni might expect etc.

I'm currently looking at 明星大学. It seems to be one of the harder courses to pass, but seems more prestigious and well recognised. It's also fairly easy to commute to for me, should need be. Did anyone here get their teaching licence through 明星?

If anyone can share some info about their journey to getting qualified, I'd be extremely grateful.

Thanks.

by trust_me_im_astomach

5 comments

  2. I can answer this a little because my wife did it for her elementary school teaching license. She also did it at Meisei University.

    First of all, it is entirely in Japanese. This was a few years ago, but when my wife took the courses, they sent her a textbook for each class and she had to read and answer questions. This was all in handwriting, though now, I am not sure the way it goes. Then they would mail back a graded booklet.

    A few courses must be done in person and they offer these as intensive summer classes which you must attend in person. This was probably the most tiring part of the whole ordeal as we live far outside of Tokyo. Sometimes she would stay up to 3 weeks in Tokyo taking classes and using a weekly rental apartment. She then did her practicum in her hometown.

    There is an office at Meisei for this that was very supportive and made it quite easy.

  3. Few things

    I did

    Nihon Daigaku

    Total cost – roughly 700,000

    However I was lucky and went when corona regulations were at their peak, so literally 100% of my lessons were Zoom, no commuting

    Getting accepted into tsuushin as a uni grad is incredibly easy, I just filled out a bunch of documents and they accepted me

    My course work was essentially 3-5 big reports a month, usually in Japanese (occasionally in English)

    Profs are pretty lenient on grading, but I did fail 1 paper for basically not writing an answer to the question I was asked, but you just resubmit it and gst credit later

    All in all, I highly recommend it

  4. Make sure all the syllabi given to you are clear, concise and are fairly marked with justification given when asked.

    I caused an actual shitshow unto a certain international university in Okayama because they worked on a trust me bro basis to their marking, despite asking students to create marking rubrics etc. it was an actual nightmare. Couldn’t even talk to the teachers for justification without posting an actual letter, despite all of them having working emails. And when I did, the teacher refused to even read it!

    Ended up calling the Dept of Education (文部省) which caused a huge audit to take place, ending up with a restructure of their English dept and people not getting their contracts renewed. Caused ripple effects to my current university too, start of the year saw teachers scrambling to make sure all their marking had clear outlines, which has actually brought about higher pass rates 😂

    It put me off doing the cert/license tbh, the entire mentality was never going to lead to any change at all to the current system, so I’ve decided Ill keep doing what I’m doing.

    TLDR, read up on as much as you can (like you are now actually) and go over anything that looks odd before you throw money at it!

  5. I am also thinking about doing this. I was looking at Seisa Daigaku because I wouldn’t have to go in so much… They only require you to go in once at the very end to get the license and reports are submitted online. I don’t trust my Japanese to get me through in-person exams… at the moment anyway. I need to read more Japanese and more regularly… 

    One of the JTEs I work with got qualified through Meisei and she highly recommends. 

    Good luck! 

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