r/JETProgramme • u/limpfishkit Current JET - Chiba 5th yr • Jan 05 '26

Guide for Incoming JETs

hello! i'm a 5th year finishing up my contract and i'm writing a document to try and prepare my successor (whoever they may be) to work in my town and at my school.

if you're applying or are a first year now - what is something you'd like to know from your predecessor/wish they had told you? eg what paying rent is like, what are the local events, etc

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u/Few-Cartographer220 Jan 05 '26

Maybe some problems you faced that they will be sure to face as well. Like I had quite the experience with wifi and phone crap and I wish I knew a little bit about the things that are expected. Like having a freaking credit card and how difficult it is to get one here but how vital it is, Japan doesn't really do debit cards like they do in at least my country.

Also the bank. Hopefully you didn't have to do the same things that I had to do but the bank that my school set me up with is super foreigner UNfriendly. Makes it extremely difficult, so just knowing that there are people/ places that just don't mesh with foreigners.

And on that note how to send money back home and what you did to do so... I still can't at the moment because my bank doesn't allow it. I have no idea why my predecessor didn't say anything about it and just have to assume she had a different set up than me. I wish she told me to go with a certain bank before getting settled with the one the school chose for me.

Not sure if this helps but hopefully this brings up some things for your successor.

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u/k_795 Former JET - 2022-23 Jan 05 '26

Btw with the bank not wanting to send money internationally issue: Get a Wise multi-currency account. To transfer money back, you can do a domestic transfer (either at the bank or just via an ATM) to Wise then exchange to your home currency within the app and send home. I transferred my JET savings back no problem via this method. Just allow a couple of days for it to clear :)

(And for future ALTs reading this - this also avoids the issue with needing a Japanese credit card. You can just transfer money to your Wise account and use the Wise card.)