The prepared position of Non-Japanese teacher in Japanese public schools is only a temporary position. This is because teachers working in a public school are regarded as a public servant. Non-Japanese teachers without Japanese nationality are given the right to work in a public school as a public servant. No matter how hard you make an effort, the legal system doesn’t allow you to work as a full-time teacher in a Japanese public school. I wrote about these things in the following article.
When I explain this way like above, some foreigners misunderstand that Japanese teachers monopolize full-time positions and non-Japanese teacher end up settling for a temporary position of mostly assisting Japanese teachers.
Apart from the employment patterns of full-time or temporary, there are actually some posts that require non-Japanese teachers to assist Japanese teachers but it is often the case that a veteran non-Japanese teacher takes charge of one English class independently. And it is a fact that Japanese teachers monopolize full-time positions but 20 to 30 percent of Japanese teachers are hired as a temporary teacher depending on the school.
According to the article of Netty Land, non-Japanese teachers from English-speaking countries such as England, the United States, and Australia has assumed a full-time position as an assistant homeroom teacher.
Teachers take charge of not only English but also art, music, domestic science.
If you build firmly career as a teacher in Japan, you may be promoted to a post of an assistant homeroom teacher. This is the highest position that a non-Japanese teacher can be promoted as long as I hear. However, this is a precedent of a non-Japanese teacher hired probably as a full-time position in a private school.
If you widen your choices as you work in a private school, the range of your career design can be more flexible.
A temporary position is a substitute position of teachers on sick leave or on maternity leave. But, for some reason, there are a certain number of teachers hired as a temporary teacher with one year contract from April.
In Japan, a shortage of school teacher in Japan is a serious problem. Too many tasks are already beyond the control of only full-time teachers so that even a temporary teacher has a case to take charge of one class as a homeroom teacher that is even the position of full-time teacher.
Recruitment process
Prior to recruitment, there is no examination to be taken but applicants need only to have an interview with the principal.
Applicants submit a CV or resume to an educational committee located in January.
After that, you get conclusive confirmation about your decision to work in a public school from a person in charge. If there is no problem with you, your data is automatically registered on a teacher’s list.
From January to February, municipalities start approaching those registered teachers which they find from a teacher’s list, filtering various conditions to find the best teacher whose personality meets the condition they require.
If an applicant accepts the approach from a municipality, then your employment is officially decided after having an easy interview with the principal of a school. Which school you belong to all depends on the decision by the municipality.
Applicants averagely have 5 offers from different municipal offices about if they can come to a municipality to work as a teacher. Applicant’s employment is mostly decided as they accept an offer. There is no need for applicants to find a school to be hired. They just wait until ringing a call.
You can understand how serious shortage of teacher is in Japan. Actually, there is no school allocating only full-time teachers nowadays. Temporary teachers are now the school’s mainstay to support school operation in Japan.
A public school doesn’t care about who is a temporary and a full-time teacher. It is obvious that no parents know the fact that some of them are engaged as a teacher in spite of not passing the examination for a public school’s teacher recruitment
Basically, the teacher’s qualification in a public school is given by passing the exam and all the temporary teachers need thoroughly to assist full-time teachers. However, things are different now.
It is quite natural that a temporary teacher is left to the position of a homeroom teacher even without satisfactory results or experiences working as a teacher.
Contradiction that no temporary teacher has time left for preparation for the teacher’s recruitment exam
There are a lot of temporary teachers who have pride in their job and amazing teaching skill that other full-time teachers can’t acquire. From the aspect of teaching skills, the recruitment exam cannot be more than an indicator to know the capacity of teachers.
However, once applicants are employed as a temporary position, a school requires them very high standard teaching skill and to handle too many tasks. There is no time left to prepare for the recruitment exam.
In the current situation, Japanese temporary teachers assigned to quite busy public school faces difficulty to pass the exam and have also the problem that they shoulder high responsibility of their tasks that doesn’t balance with their temporary position.
If you want to aim for becoming a homeroom teacher in a Japanese school…
Year by year, teacher’s employment conditions towards a non-Japanese applicant has become more flexible than before. In terms of a public school, if non-Japanese applicants pass a gateway of the recruitment exam, a given position is still a temporary one but in terms of private school, very interesting attempts to hire non-Japanese applicants by estimating their ability justifiably not only with teacher’s recruitment exam. If they find a way to work as a full-time teacher in a private school, it is possible to be promoted as an official homeroom teacher position.