public service announcement:

if you're thinking about jobs in japan, it's going to be an insanely good time to look for english-teaching jobs starting around next month (or now??) because the entire country is going to start teaching english from 3rd grade instead of 5th for the first time, starting in april. my friend just got a job teaching english last week, by literally just walking into the school and asking even though they weren't hiring. apparently their teacher quit the day before so they were desperate!

you don't have to be a native english speaker (in fact most english teachers are just "random foreigners" and lately japan is pushing the "french-accented, swedish-accented etc english is english too!!" concept) but i think i saw on one job ad that if you're not a native, your TOEIC skills have to be at least 800.

average entry-level salary (stuff like working at a kindergarten while not having any kind of degree) seems to be 1,100 to 1,400 yen per hour (compare to 750-850 for convenience store work); higher salary is 3,000 (stuff like working a company's branch office while having a bachelor's degree). because their main target audience is in school/at work all day, most english-teaching jobs are part-time unless you land a job at an actual middle school or something like that, but unlike what i've read online it seems to actually be possible to get a work permit via having multiple part-time jobs...?