Although there are 3 basic roads to teaching in Japan most recent graduates use to start their teaching careers, the destination in terms of salaries and working conditions are fairly similar.

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 thousands of “eikaiwa” schools dotting the country side.All of these schools are attempting to carry out the daunting 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 pretty much also need to speak English at native level fluency. Some do succeed in finding work in Japan, even though English isn't their first language but the overwhelming majority of postions that get filled are filled by native level fluent teachers.

Although there is no minimum wage, most teachers drag in  250,000 yen a month before taxes.  A typical work week will be 5 days long. 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.  Vacation packages are quite similar for most schools. Expect 2 weeks  of paid vacation and most national holiday off. Schools differ on which national holidays they observe but the norm is 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. Here is a handy chart to help you compare salaries and working conditions for huge chain schools like Geos, ECC, Berlitz and Aeon.

You should expect roughly a 40 hour work week. Each school is different but you can expect roughly 20 to 25 actual teaching hours per week with the rest being office hours.Many schools will subsidize your health insurance or pay for it out right. Most office hours get filled by preparing lessons, talking with students and taking class notes. And (depending on the school) some teachers are expected to hand out school advertisments. 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. This means you’ll be using their in house texts, tapes and other support materials for teaching. 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.

ESL teachers typically teach 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 the competitiveness of this industry, most schools cater to all ages. Most teachers teach children, young professionals and some housewives.

Most of your large chain schools will provide you with some type of accommodations. This is a huge help because it's tought to find accommodaions without the help of a Japanese national. Not to mention it’s also quite expensive. But the type provided will vary, you should expect things to be half the size of what you might find in most western countries. In general, furnishings will be a bit sparce as often they consist of departing teachers belongings.

Related posts:

1. Teaching in Japan with TEFL Certification