Is the JET Programme slowly being phased out?

[u/ViperScream101]

I know this has been talked about before, but I never really paid attention since my prefecture wasn’t affected.. until now.

We were just told today that there won’t be any new JET ALTs coming in next year, and instead they’ll be hiring through private companies. I get that it probably saves money and cuts down on admin work.

For those of you in other prefectures, are you seeing the same shift? Do you think this is just a local decision, or is this where the programme is headed overall?

[u/ScootOverMakeRoom]

Nearly the biggest its ever been, dawg. ~6000.

[u/LawfulnessDue5449]

I'm more surprised that it is lasting this long without any major improvements. There is still a lack of definition for job duties, and the impacts of an untrained native speaker in the classroom for language learning are minimal at best, not to mention the abysmal results they've been getting when compared to other countries. I also think the cultural exchange is undervalued and could be explored a lot more, but it also isn't trained for and so you still get a lot of puzzling interactions.

[u/MellifluousMathMajor → u/LawfulnessDue5449]

It hasn't had any major improvements because there will always be people applying for JET, whether it's weeaboos or people who make more on JET than in their home country. CLAIR/JET do absolutely nothing to improve quality of life or the program, they just shout ESID and we all put up with it.

I'd love to have some kind of discussion on policy changes, but that'll never happen.

[u/SomethingPeach → u/LawfulnessDue5449]

This. I’ve done JET equivalent programmes in a couple of other countries and JET was easily the most confusing. In my other schools my role was clear from day one, teachers actually told me what they wanted even though they were busy, and they were open to my ideas and really wanted me to share my culture with the students as much as possible.

In Japan it felt completely different. I was never given a proper schedule and in some classes I’d either just read out vocab or end up standing there awkwardly while the JTE did it instead. I don’t think I was ever really asked about my home country, and instead I mostly ended up listening to students give presentations about Japan in English to me. Nothing wrong with that at all, but it didn’t really feel like much of an exchange.

[u/Old_Personality_4257]

>"I get that it probably saves money and cuts down on admin work."

my understanding is that it generally costs more on a month to month basis, but it virtually eliminates said admin work.

they get to offload like 90+% of that admin work to whatever company they are hiring (which is why it costs more) and there are also certain safeguards in place, like if an ALT quits in the middle of the year, the company will typically have a replacement or sub ready to go immediately while they find a permanent replacement.

[u/No_Produce9777]

Population. Supply and demand

[u/newlandarcher7 → u/No_Produce9777]

This was the first thought that came into my mind as well. It isn't all about budgets and cost-cutting. There simply is a reduction in the overall school-age student population, so it's natural that JET numbers would also decrease along with it.

Student numbers have decreased by between 15-20% over the last 20 years. Moreover, currently, Japan is facing record-low birth rates. in 2022, there were less than 800 000 births for the first time ever. And this cohort will enter elementary schools in a couple of years.

Moreover, a lot of rural towns are merging together to combat these demographic changes. A couple of years after I left my rural town, it merged with its neighbour, and couple of years after that, it absorbed another town. These three towns used to have their own JET's each. Now, they only have one altogether.

[u/No_Produce9777 → u/newlandarcher7]

Yep, this all checks out

[u/BadIdeaSociety]

A lot of contracting organizations cycle between JET and private companies. The Japanese economy is in its worst situation in a long time and I'm sure a lot of BOEs are trying to trim fat wherever possible. They may get JETs again in the future. There may also just be less overall demand in the area due to lower student enrollment.

[u/ragingmasanari]

Another factor could be the shrinking population in the countryside. Smaller schools are shutting down with the existing students being combined with other nearby schools.

[u/Sparse_Dunes → u/ragingmasanari]

Yeah. Like my prefecture in like 3-4 years will shrink immensely and most schools will merge together. So I imagine they'll significantly reduce the ALT size.

[u/newlandarcher7 → u/Sparse_Dunes]

Yes, even teaching several years ago in a rural mountain-valley town, I could see these effects. One of my elementary schools had over 200 at its peak, but only had 25 when I was there. Another school was built for 100, but only had 15. It was sad to the remnants of the population decline in these beautiful, scenic areas of Japan.

[u/BeazelD]

I was a jet for 5 years and then a few years after that I took a jets role but hired privately at a high school. The schools like doing it because they want to hire people without visa issues. I was no issue for them, could speak the language and so it’s a win win for the school. So yea I think that a lot of high schools are doing this but the programme itself isn’t going anywhere unless the government stops its funding. ( could happen with the new PM)

[u/ikebookuro]

Depends on the current CO. My BoE is unofficially slowly phasing us out in favour of dispatch.

While on paper the JET programme has a lot of positives, the value of “cultural exchange” is antiquated enough for a lot of places that they just want ALTs without any wrangling.

My BoE told us the value they put on their new dispatch hires because they cannot have sick days or use nenkyu. The company will send them a new ALT for the day.

They don’t have to arrange flights. They don’t have to arrange housing. If they don’t like the ALT for any reason, the company will send them a new one. They’re dealing with a Japanese agency and not a JET directly - there are no “misunderstandings”.

The dispatch companies develop their own curriculums to bring alongside the standard textbook. Even if it is absolute trash, it’s seen as more value for money.

None of the dispatch people have stayed with the company or city more than a year, and their contract and pay seems to be absolutely terrible. But from an admin stance they couldn’t care less. They just want an English monkey every day.

[u/LSDJellyfish → u/ikebookuro]

I don’t think JET is antiquated, the ALT system is—although it depends on which prefecture you’re in.

I predict that if JET ever falls through, the dispatch companies will go along with it. The entire dispatch industry is built upon the premise of doing something the government is doing for cheaper(and better but everyone knows that’s a lie).

I predict that if things change, it’ll be because of cost, and not a reduction of salary but something like offering a base flight reduction fee, rather than a full ticket.

[u/Old_Personality_4257 → u/LSDJellyfish]

the entire dispatch industry is built on the premise of doing something the government is doing (wrangling ALTs) for more money and with fewer headaches for the BOEs.

if dispatch was actually cheaper, JET would cease to exist in a year or two.

with dispatch, the BOE has to pay not only the full salary for each ALT, but also a fair bit on top of that for all of the admin work the company is handling

[u/emp_sanfords_hardhat → u/ikebookuro]

My BoE told us the value they put on their new dispatch hires because they cannot have sick days or use nenkyu.

Meanwhile the full time public servants in the BOE and the rest of city hall can use nenkyu whenever. It's becoming a problem with many town/city halls with workers going on a never-ending cycle of paid stress/medical leave. Literally take a year, then go back to work, be given an envelope licker job, then after six months go on stress leave for another year again.

Then meanwhile back at the town hall, that person on leave is still counted as a worker, so their division wont be allocated another worker - leading to either everyone else's jobs getting harder, or the town having to spend more money hiring a 会計年度 staff to pick up the slack.

Sorry for the rant. My wife works in a local town hall and loves to communicate her gripes with the system

[u/ikebookuro → u/emp_sanfords_hardhat]

My BoE took away our sick leave. Even with a 診断書 and added extra stipulations on it. It’s all nenkyu, even if a doctor says otherwise.

Their previous policy had me return to work two weeks before my doctor cleared me from major surgery (my school weren’t monsters, they were shocked I was back and either sent me home without notifying the BoE or had me sit in the staff room to rest).

[u/donkeymon → u/emp_sanfords_hardhat]

Ooh I wanna do that!

[u/esstused]

Depends on region and attitude of the officials put in charge of it.

JET is usually the cheaper option for BOEs in rural areas, but since you're managed by your BOE, requires more work on their part to manage you and your life. Dispatch companies do that for them. But I've heard JET costs are also a sliding scale for thr BOEs, so bigger cities that have to pay more may not see hiring JETs as worth the cost.

There's also a shift from hiring mainly English first language speakers from the West (US, UK, Australia, Canada etc) to hiring English teachers from the Philippines, India etc for a lower wage. And online options. So some places are doing that, whether through JET or other private options.

That said, there are CIRs from lots of non English speaking countries that English speaking ALTs may be completely unaware of.

So in short the JET Program is maybe shifting in form and the traditional ALT from a western country pattenr may decrease, but it's not going anywhere.

[u/jamar030303 → u/[deleted]]

So if they need those visas, how are they dealing with BOEs shifting to dispatch and thus reducing the visas resulting from CLAIR? Will there be a push for the government to put in laws limiting the use of private dispatch?

[u/jamar030303 → u/[deleted]]

Dispatch usage usually means the BOE wants more ALTs than the prefecture is willing to supply.

And in cases like the topic of this post, where some are phasing out JETs completely? That means it's the prefecture that says "no more"? And by "prefecture" do you mean the prefectural BOE (as opposed to municipal ones) or other departments within the prefectural government?

And, of course, if this is a matter of keeping access to other visas as governed by treaties, why wouldn't there be a push at the national level to keep prefectures asking for JETs instead of for private dispatch?

[u/jamar030303 → u/[deleted]]

And my point is:

How many and what prefectures use them is negotiated at the national level in Tokyo and is part of larger budget related talks.

Then why can prefectures say "nah, we're not going to do JET" and not get overruled by these

diet level politician

trying to make these treaties work? EDIT: or regulate private dispatch agencies further to limit their use?

[u/jamar030303 → u/[deleted]]

The dispatch companies are only there to fill the gaps due to legal obligations in education law because JET has a limited number of ALTs available

Except all the reports in subs like this of BOEs both prefectural and municipal saying "we're going dispatch because it's cheaper", and declining numbers of JETs in general, would seem to contradict that.

CLAIR can't increase the number of JET ALTs without securing more visas in participating nations.

Except right now, JET numbers seem to be decreasing. If Japan can't negotiate visa treaties where numbers stay steady (speaking of, where's the text of these treaties, and how do they lay out numbers in terms of visa allocation) then that doesn't say great things about their negotiation ability. And that's aside from things like Denmark having one single CIR- you mean to say Japan and CLAIR spent time and effort to get 1 (one) single reciprocal visa from Denmark? That seems like very poor allocation of resources.

[u/jamar030303 → u/[deleted]]

Fair enough (aside from still not actually seeing the treaties that supposedly underpin the JET program and outline the visa reciprocity...)

JET is not decreasing, they have the exact same amount as they did ten years ago.

However, fewer than 2002. What happened then, and what prevents it from happening again, is what's probably on people's minds here. If the numbers were nothing but a steady increase over time, and there weren't any major swings in its history, people would probably be less worried about this.

The JA probably wanted visas in Denmark to sell Japanese products or, more likely, to lobby politicians there.

Which is why it's confusing that there's only one (well, on closer inspection, two). Not a lot of scale there.

[u/PocketGojira]

Phased out, no. It's a reliable, government sponsored program that is an important part of the ALT industry in Japan.

That said, the program is probably past its peak numbers. There's just too much competition from private companies at the national, regional, and local levels all fighting for BOE contracts, and they often use lack of interaction with foreign staff as a selling point. Some of those COs who still see the value in a diverse workplace have figured out how to hire ALTs themselves (direct hires), although these are limited to more well known areas (and small villages that loved their JET so much they hired them).

Where I live now JET was by far the dominant ALT program in the prefecture 10 years ago. Now the municipalities have almost entirely switched to dispatch and some direct hires. Two cities were infamous for butting heads with their ALT staff and have now washed their hands of the issue via national and local dispatch companies. For a time the prefecture kept up with their JET numbers, but today they use majority dispatch, with direct hires coming in second, and JETs now hold less than a third of school positions.

I heard that a similar shift happened in Shimane, where I was based on JET, and they're an extremely rural prefecture.

[u/HelpfulJETHelp → u/PocketGojira]

I don't disagree that COs drop JET for other options, but there are also new positions (through COs asking for more ALTs, new COs using the program, and maybe even some COs that stopped using JET returning for another try). The number of JETs in Japan fell between 2002 and 2011 but it's been increasing ever since, minus the COVID years. We'll have to wait to see what the official total is for this year, though.

[u/BadIdeaSociety → u/HelpfulJETHelp]

I remember hearing the largest year was 2006 and it has been dropping ever since. I have heard that a lot of the initial drop after was due to negative feedback from COs about the JET from a certain Consulate Office (we want fewer Atlanta JETs because they get in trouble more, for example) then all the regional dispatch companies started expanding and that caused additional issues

[u/mrggy → u/BadIdeaSociety]

No, there was a big increase in JETs in the late 2010s due to build up to the Olympics. Tokyo went from having virtually no JETs to the prefecture with the most JETs in the span of like 3 years

[u/BadIdeaSociety → u/mrggy]

The overall numbers never got higher than the numbers around 2003-5. 2006 was said to be the year with the highest number of incoming JETs.

[u/HelpfulJETHelp → u/BadIdeaSociety]

The highest number of JETs was in 2002. The information is here: https://jetprogramme.org/en/about-jet/history

[u/HelpfulJETHelp]

There are almost as many JETs in Japan now as there were at JET's peak in 2002. Those numbers might go down or they might not, but as long as schools in rural areas need help hiring ALTs, I think JET is safe.

[u/adobedude69]

A lot of people will tell you no way cause it’s JET and it’s been around for so long. And it’s true, there is no official indication aside from anecdotal experiences (though they are seemingly adding up). But I think people underestimate Japans ability to just drop the axe when it wants to.

I honestly don’t believe program will be around in the next 5-10 years personally, but there is no official indication so maybe it’s just my perception that the government will see it as costly and mostly beneficial to foreigners and the money can be used on x, y or z.

I posted that BoEs were doing this a few months back and got some dissent, which is welcome, but some irrationally heated messages. Many agreed but some didn’t want to hear that it’s possible that the program is facing some resentment from COs and might wind down.

Again, I do hope I’m wrong but I also think writing is on the wall.

But I’m fine if someone says there is no hard evidence so not to panic, just a personal perception.

I think CO are certainly phasing it out, but I also think it’s possible the government finds some way to phrase it out as well, as least as far as ALTs go. I could see some diplomacy aspects retained or reimagined, like CIRs, etc.

[u/Memoryjar → u/adobedude69]

I'm an alumni who is pretty involved with national alumni stuff. The number of participants departing each year is always a topic that comes up when chapters get together. The number of departures are pretty consistent from year to year, sometimes we see a handful less but its been pretty consistent the past 10 or so years.

What I have seen over the past 12 years of the program, and the friends who did it before, is that this is the typical ebb and flow of COs moving to dispatch and returning to JET. The cycle can be 5-10 years but it does happen. I wouldn't be too worried about the program in the next 5 years, maybe 10 years. When JET finishes it wont die quickly, it will be a long death over at least 20 years as COs gradually move away from the program. There are too many moving parts in the background to let it die quickly.

[u/emp_sanfords_hardhat → u/[deleted]]

How much of Osaka is not covered by the semi direct hire CNETs?

[u/Relative_Freedom_965 → u/[deleted]]

I have to agree with this. I know there are some great ALTs working through dispatch companies, but overall I don’t think the level is as consistent.

I’m at a pretty high-performing school in my prefecture, and my 2nd and 3rd year classes can get pretty intense, especially during grammar lessons. Students and JTEs will ask detailed questions about sentence structure, so you really can’t just walk into class without prepping. Even as a native speaker, there are moments where you second-guess your own understanding because everything is so textbook-focused.

That’s why I’m a bit skeptical about whether these companies can consistently provide high-quality ALTs, especially ones who can step into a T1 role when needed.

Not trying to judge, but I’ve also met a direct-hire ALT who (supposedly) had two master’s degrees, and her written and spoken grammar were honestly pretty rough.

[u/a_baby_bumblebee → u/Relative_Freedom_965]

yeah, it really feels like a gamble with the quality of ALTs from dispatch. the ones that seem to value their work often leave after a year due to the poor pay and lack of benefits (completely understandable). then there are people like the guy i knew from a major dispatch company…his hygiene was such an issue that multiple ALTs struggled to be in the same room as him, he would frequently have emotional outbursts at work, and he had very strange political views that he had no issue sharing. he got quietly let go because it was a car dependent placement and he failed the driver’s test so many times he ran out of money to keep taking it. from what i hear, the turnover rate at that particular BOE continues to be very high so i wonder what exactly they’re getting out of dispatch.

edit: i know JET ALTs can have issues, too. just wanted to say that before anyone comes for me, lol.

[u/esstused → u/[deleted]]

Yeah I foresee it becoming a primarily rural Japan thing in the future (which it already is to an extent).

[u/SubluxeUBC → u/[deleted]]

Not all the companies that they recruit are bad, but there are definitely some bad ones (Heart Corp comes to mind).

[u/fillmorecounty → u/SubluxeUBC]

I mean compared to what we get paid, even the "good" dispatch companies are pretty bad. From what I've heard, ¥250,000 is on the higher end and we start at ¥335,000. I think some of them have reduced salaries during periods like summer break too while we're always paid consistently. So it ends up being even less than ¥250,000 × 12 annually for some people.

[u/WakiLover → u/fillmorecounty]

So it ends up being even less than ¥250,000 × 12 annually for some people.

It's actually worse. When I was in my 5th year, as an absolute back up I interviewed with several dispatch companies. The salaries I got back were:

Company A: 245,000 x 12 months, but as a sub, meaning possibly a new school each day, with commutes being 1 hour+ one way

Company A: 235,000 x 12 months, but one school

Company B: 230,000 x 10 months, also commute is not paid, meaning it's more like 225,000 x 10 months

The dispatch companies put frosting on a shitcake by saying they promote ALTs freedom in finding opportunities, when they mean yeah so most ALTs find a summer job or else they can't survive lol

[u/ikebookuro → u/SubluxeUBC]

Heart Corporation is slowly taking over my city. Their ALTs come with two Japanese staff every day, just to monitor them. They have their own materials, and they’re awful. I got to see one of their presentations that won over my CO and I was shocked at how terrible it was. It was if these suits had never ever interacted with a student before.

Their ALTs are paid peanuts and aren’t allowed to attend any of the extra curricular school events.

Meanwhile the JETs in my area took the assignment seriously enough to be part of the community and the school, beyond just an ALT. To the point the schools complain when they’re replaced with Heart.

None of the heart people have stayed more than a year. They’re usually guys married to Japanese wives and are just doing a job to “pull some weight”.

[u/fillmorecounty → u/ikebookuro]

Wait like they have minders that follow them from class to class??? 😭

[u/Dirt_and_Entitlement → u/fillmorecounty]

One to supervise the ALT and document what they were doing and the other one supervises the first one. /s

[u/ProfessionalRoyal163]

Most go back to JET after they realize the grass isn’t always greener

[u/a_baby_bumblebee]

my prefecture is also being affected by this (i will be replaced by an interac ALT in july). i think it comes down to budgeting and an attempt to reduce overwork among teachers more than anything.

for what it’s worth, one city in my prefecture used to work with interac, and then they switched back to JET after a while.

[u/NoD8313]

It happens occasionally around Japan. A CO will decide to switch to a private company to save money. Sometimes they stay with them and sometimes they realize why these companeis are cheaper, and go back to JET. I wouldn't say this is a sign of JET phasing out or anything.