Question # 9. How much money can I make teaching ESL in Japan?
Question #9. How much money can I make?
There is not as much money to be made in Japan teaching ESL now as there used to be.
The going rate seems to be about 250,000 a month for spending 20 hours in the classroom facing students. Prep time does not count and is not paid for.
Furnished housing is often/usually provided…or a stipend. 50,000-100,000 yen depending on the area where one works. The social health insurance monthly premium (20,000-30,000) is also usually paid. 
Depending on the exchange rate, the salary and benefits come to about $3-4000/month. Eating and playing comes out of the monthly 250,000 yen after around 10% in taxes is removed.
One can live, go to movies, join gyms, ski, eat out on 100,000-150,000 yen leaving 75,000-100,000 to be saved or squandered depending on the individual.
Private lessons can be arranged depending on the contract with the teacher's sponsor and conflict of interest clauses. Some schools will pay overtime.
All in all, a couple can make $6-8,000 a month if both work and a single teacher with lots of energy can push it to $4-5000 a month.
Money can be made and saved in Japan.
The cost of living is not prohibitive either. After all, the Japanese live there and they seem to make ends meet just fine.
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April 21, 2007
While I agree working in Japan there are ways to survive and save a bit each month. You need to take into account city taxes, expat health insurance and the airfare to and from the country. The health insurance is needed really, there are no Japanese health plans covering the airlifting of your mangled body back to your home country. After personally seeing how three of my friends were mowed down by cars and left to fend for their lives in the “polite” society. These friends were all treated at the local hospital in the Kanagawa area. One of the accident victims had a broken arm which was set by a qualified doctor, she had to have the arm rebroke in NZ in order to enable a normal function. Japanese doctors in general are not up to snuff, after eight years in Japan I have seen it all. Get health insurance from abroad, at least then you can get treatment at one of the western hospitals for free. Do you really think Embassy workers are treated in the Japan hospitals, no way. I was with Global Healthcare, a solid company. You can find more listed on http://www.healthyexpat.com. Be careful of the less than great schools in Japan, search trough http://www.eslspider.com for a proper position and at least get travel insurance from your home county. Good article!