Teaching English in Japan is one of the most structured, well-paid corners of the entire TEFL world, and Irish graduates get hired for it every single year through three main routes: the government-run JET Programme, private ALT dispatch companies, and eikaiwa conversation schools. If you are staring down a graduate visa deadline or just tired of the Irish rental market, this guide walks through exactly how each hiring pathway works, what it pays in yen and euro, what life actually costs once you land, and which route Irish graduates from TEFL.ie tend to get into fastest.

There is a reason Japan keeps coming up in our graduates’ group chats. It combines a genuinely stable, well-regulated job market for English teachers with a culture, transport system and standard of living that consistently ranks among the best in the world for expats. But it is not one job. It is at least three very different hiring systems, each with its own timeline, its own paperwork, and its own idea of what counts as a good salary. Get the route wrong and you will spend months on an application that was never going to suit your circumstances. Get it right and you could be teaching in Osaka by next spring.

Teaching English in Japan: The Three Hiring Routes Explained

Every Irish graduate who ends up teaching in Japan goes through one of three doors. The first is the JET Programme (Japan Exchange and Teaching), a Japanese government scheme that places Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) directly into public schools via a single annual application through the Embassy of Japan in Ireland. The second is private ALT dispatch, where companies such as Interac, Borderlink and ALTIA Central are contracted by local boards of education to supply teachers to public schools, essentially doing a similar job to JET ALTs but through a private, year-round hiring process. The third is eikaiwa, Japan’s private conversation school industry, built around chains like AEON, ECC, NOVA and Gaba, which hire adults and teach evenings and weekends in city-centre branches.

Each route hires differently, pays differently and suits a different kind of graduate. JET is the most prestigious and the best supported, but it only opens once a year and is genuinely competitive. Dispatch ALT work hires constantly and is the fastest way to actually get on a plane. Eikaiwa suits people who want to live centrally in a big city and do not mind evening hours. None of the three require you to already speak Japanese, and none of them require classroom teaching experience, but all three expect a TEFL certificate and, in almost every case, a university degree, since that is what Japan’s work visa rules are actually built around.

The Master Table: JET vs ALT vs Eikaiwa Pay and Costs

Here is the comparison Irish graduates actually want: what each route pays in yen, what that comes to in euro, and how it stacks up against a realistic monthly cost of living. Figures are gross, pre-tax monthly salaries.

Source note: JET Programme salary figures are taken directly from the Embassy of Japan in Ireland’s official JET Programme guidance and the 2026 JET Programme application guidelines (remuneration approximately ¥4,020,000 in Year 1, ¥4,140,000 in Year 2 and ¥4,260,000 in Year 3, paid monthly). ALT dispatch and eikaiwa ranges are drawn from published pay information from Interac, Borderlink and multiple 2026 TEFL salary surveys, cross-checked against at least two independent sources per TEFL.ie’s editorial standards. Cost-of-living ranges reflect 2026 expat budget breakdowns for rent, food and transport in each city. Yen to euro conversions use the European Central Bank’s JPY reference rate of approximately ¥185.2 to €1 (21 July 2026). All figures are gross, pre-tax, and general guidance only: your actual salary depends on the city, the employer and your experience, so always confirm the exact number in your own contract before you sign anything.

The pattern is worth sitting with for a second. JET pays the most and comes with the most support, but it is a once-a-year application with a hard deadline. Dispatch ALT work pays the least at the bottom end, but you can apply almost any month of the year, which matters if your graduation date does not line up with JET’s cycle. Eikaiwa sits in the middle on pay but usually means living centrally, since the schools are built around evening footfall in city districts. None of the three routes will make you rich, but all three leave a reasonable amount left over once rent is paid, particularly outside Tokyo.

How Irish Graduates Actually Get Hired: The JET Programme Route

JET is run by the Japanese government and, for Irish applicants, administered through the Embassy of Japan in Ireland. There is only one intake per year, and the Embassy’s own guidance page confirms the 2026 round opened over the summer and closed on 5 December 2025, with all interviews held in Dublin regardless of where in Ireland (or the world) you happen to be living. To qualify, you need an Irish passport, a bachelor’s degree in any subject, strong written and spoken English, and a genuine interest in Japan that you can talk about convincingly at interview. You do not need Japanese language ability, a teaching qualification or classroom experience, though a TEFL certificate strengthens an application that otherwise looks thin on teaching-specific content.

The process itself runs in stages: a written application in autumn, an interview at the Embassy in Dublin in late winter, and results in the spring, with successful candidates arriving in Japan the following July or August. Placement is not something you control. JET assigns you to a prefecture, and you can request a preference (city, town or rural) but there is no guarantee. This is the trade-off that defines JET: less choice over where you live, in exchange for the best-supported package of the three routes, including flights, a housing allowance in most placements, health insurance, a pension contribution and rising pay for every year you stay, up to five.

How Irish Graduates Actually Get Hired: ALT Dispatch Companies

If the JET calendar does not suit you, or you simply want to move faster, ALT dispatch is the more flexible option. Companies including Interac, Borderlink and ALTIA Central hold contracts with local boards of education and hire foreign staff to fill ALT roles in public schools throughout the year, not just once. The hiring process is quicker and considerably less formal than JET: an online application, a video interview, a background check and, once you have a placement, help with the visa paperwork. The trade-off is pay and support. Dispatch salaries tend to sit lower than JET, starting around ¥200,000 a month at some companies, and a portion of the benefits JET participants get automatically, like flights or a housing allowance, are inconsistent across dispatch companies and sometimes absent altogether. Placement is still largely decided by the company rather than the applicant, so you should ask directly, before signing, which regions are on offer and what the actual take-home pay looks like after any deductions. Several returning ALTs and Reddit threads on this route note that advertised salary ranges are frequently the ceiling, not the norm, for a first-year hire with no local experience.

How Irish Graduates Actually Get Hired: Eikaiwa Conversation Schools

Eikaiwa chains like AEON, ECC, NOVA and Gaba hire adults’ conversation teachers year-round, and their hiring process looks the most like a conventional job application: an online form, a phone or video interview, sometimes a short teaching demonstration, and an offer within a matter of weeks rather than months. Pay through eikaiwa sits between the two ALT routes, typically ¥250,000 to ¥300,000 a month, and the schools are almost always located centrally in major cities, since their whole business model depends on being convenient for working adults to drop into after their own jobs finish.

The catch is the schedule. Eikaiwa work is built around evenings and weekends, which suits some graduates and frustrates others who imagined daytime hours and school holidays. It is also worth knowing that some eikaiwa chains have had turbulent histories with sudden closures (NOVA’s 2007 collapse remains a cautionary tale in TEFL circles), so it pays to check a school’s current financial standing and read recent, verifiable staff reviews before signing a year-long contract on the other side of the world.

Cost of Living: What’s Actually Left Over

A salary figure on its own tells you very little. What matters is what is left once rent, food and transport are paid, and that varies enormously depending on which Japanese city you land in.

Source note: rent and monthly cost ranges are drawn from 2026 expat cost-of-living surveys for each city, cross-referenced against multiple independent sources per TEFL.ie’s editorial standards. Savings estimates assume a ¥250,000 gross monthly salary, a mid-range single-occupancy apartment and moderate spending on food, transport and one or two nights out a week; your own figure will depend heavily on lifestyle, whether you cook at home, and how far outside the city centre you are willing to live. Yen to euro conversions use the ECB reference rate of approximately ¥185.2 to €1 (21 July 2026). This is general guidance, not a guarantee of what you personally will save.

The takeaway that surprises most first-time applicants is that Tokyo, for all its glamour, is usually the worst place to actually save money as a new English teacher in Japan. Osaka and Fukuoka pay only slightly less on average but cost noticeably less to live in, which is why a lot of experienced ALTs and eikaiwa teachers deliberately request a regional posting for their first year rather than holding out for the capital.

What You Need Before You Apply

Whichever of the three routes you choose, the underlying requirements barely change. You need a bachelor’s degree in any subject, since Japanese immigration ties the standard work visa for English teachers to holding a degree, not to holding a specific qualification in education. You need a TEFL certificate: not always a legal requirement for the visa itself, but a near-universal expectation from every serious employer, JET included, because it demonstrates you understand lesson planning and classroom management before you are handed a room of teenagers. Most Irish graduates take our 120-hour TEFL course as the minimum standard, while those aiming specifically at JET or university-level roles often prefer the extra depth of a Level 5 TEFL diploma, since it carries formal Ofqual regulation that some Japanese employers explicitly ask about at interview.

You will also need a clean criminal background check, a passport that will not expire mid-contract, and, for most routes, a demonstrable level of English that is either native-level or backed up by having completed your own education through English. None of the three hiring pathways require Japanese language ability to get in the door, although a basic grasp of the language makes daily life considerably easier and is something most employers, JET especially, actively encourage you to build once you arrive.

The Application Timeline: What to Expect Month by Month

Planning around JET’s single yearly window is the single biggest scheduling mistake Irish graduates make when they decide to teach English in Japan. If JET is your target, applications typically open in the autumn and close in early December for arrival the following July or August, which means final-year students need to apply during their last semester, months before they graduate, and simply hope the timing works out with exams and dissertations. If that window has already closed for the year, or you would rather not wait, dispatch ALT companies and eikaiwa chains hire on a rolling basis throughout the year, with hiring activity typically picking up ahead of the Japanese academic year in April and again before the autumn term.

A realistic end-to-end timeline for the dispatch or eikaiwa route runs to two or three months: roughly two to four weeks from application to interview and offer, followed by four to eight weeks for visa processing, contract signing and travel arrangements. JET runs on a much longer cycle of six to nine months from application to arrival, precisely because it is a single annual batch processed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs rather than an ongoing private hiring pipeline.

Common Mistakes Irish Graduates Make

The most common misstep is applying to only one route and treating a rejection as the end of the road. JET is genuinely competitive, and a JET rejection says very little about your chances with a dispatch company or an eikaiwa chain, since they assess candidates differently and value different things at interview. The second mistake is comparing headline salary figures without adjusting for the city: a ¥280,000 salary in rural Kyushu goes considerably further than the same figure in central Tokyo once rent is accounted for. The third is underestimating how much paperwork Japan expects; visa sponsorship documents, certificate legalisation and background checks all take longer than people assume, so starting the process the month you decide to apply for a July start is usually too late.

It also helps enormously to have your TEFL certificate and any supporting documents legalised well in advance, since Japanese employers and immigration officials will want to see it authenticated, not just emailed as a PDF. This is one of the areas graduates most often ask us about after they have already accepted a job offer and suddenly have a two-week window to sort it. As one recent TEFL.ie student, Shane Harrison, put it in a verified Trustpilot review from 23 June 2026 after finishing the Teaching Young Learners course relevant to many public-school ALT roles: “I found it engaging, highly instructive (as one might rightfully expect), and, dare I say, most enjoyable, to boot.” Getting the course right early avoids exactly the kind of last-minute scramble that catches so many first-time applicants out.

Is It Worth It for Irish Graduates?

For the right person, yes, and the numbers back it up better than most TEFL destinations. A JET or eikaiwa salary in a mid-sized city leaves genuine room to save, the standard of living is high, public transport is excellent, and Japan’s reputation for safety consistently ranks near the top of global indices, which matters if you are moving alone at 22 or 23 straight out of an Irish university. It is not, however, a route to getting rich, and anyone chasing a fast financial win should look elsewhere: this is a career-building, life-broadening move, not a money-making scheme, and no TEFL provider, including us, can guarantee you a specific salary, job or visa outcome.

If you already know Japan is the destination, the practical next step is deciding which of the three hiring routes actually fits your calendar, your risk tolerance and how much say you want over where you end up living, then working backwards from that decision to choose the right TEFL course and application timeline. Graduates who have gone through our own TEFL internship programme in Japan often say the structured support around visas, orientation and that first nervous month made the biggest difference, particularly for a first move abroad with no existing contacts on the ground.

Conclusion

Teaching English in Japan is not a single job application: it is a choice between three genuinely different systems, and Irish graduates who understand that distinction from the start save themselves months of wasted effort. JET pays the most and supports you the most, but only opens once a year and hands you little control over location. ALT dispatch hires constantly and moves fast, at the cost of a lower starting salary and thinner benefits. Eikaiwa sits in the middle on pay, keeps you in a city centre, and suits people who do not mind evening hours. Whichever door you go through, the underlying requirements are consistent: a degree, a solid TEFL certificate, a clean background check and a realistic sense of what a Japanese salary actually buys once rent is paid. Get that groundwork right, and teaching English in Japan becomes a genuinely achievable, well-paid first step for an Irish graduate, not just a daydream on a wet Tuesday.

FAQs