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English instructors hired illegally: union
A labor union of foreign workers requested Monday that the Aichi prefectural board of education address the concerns of English-language instructors at public schools who they say are working under illegal contracts. The [NUGW Tokyo Nambu sister union] General Union, based in the city of Osaka, said an investigation it conducted last month and communications…
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New law: no dues, no visa
An article from July that concerns every foreigner working in Japan. Are you enrolled in Shakai Hoken or did Interac tell you you weren’t eligible? Are you going to have to pay up to two years of back pay into the system next year because Interac/Maxceed did not register you into the system when you…
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Liberation In Iwate
In 2007, I recieved an email from an Interac employee that was interested in being directly hired by his BOE. He had tried in earnest to improve his working conditions through Interac, but they were uninterested in signing him up for Shakai Hoken, unemployment insurance, giving him a raise, etcetera. At the time I was…
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Stop Illegal Dispatching in Tokyo/Kanto!
Recently in the news, an NihonTerebi (Channel 4 in the Tokyo area) story focused on trials that a lot of ALTs face, focusing on the fact that not only are these creating a less than optimal working enviornment for foreign teachers but also that many of the contracts are Illegal. The reporters that researched the…
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Plan to teach English classes in English prompts worries among educators in Japan
New high school curriculum guidelines calling for English lessons to be taught in English have sparked worries among teachers in Japan, with some doubting that teachers and students will be able to handle the classes. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has explained that “teachers should first display an attitude of actively…
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Foreign teachers to be full-timers
Foreign nationals will be hired as full-time instructors at Akita Prefecture elementary schools starting next April, when English lessons become part of the official curriculum, its education board said. Native English speakers or those who have studied in English-speaking countries for a certain period can apply regardless of nationality or whether they hold a teacher’s…
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Assistant language teachers in trying times
Meanwhile, local boards of education have started to realize they cannot get competent, experienced teachers either by subcontracting to private firms or through the JET program because many of them come to Japan just out of college without any background in education. Taito Ward in Tokyo said it plans to stop outsourcing ALTs to private…