Please read your contract’s guidelines for work hours, holidays, and paid leave carefully. Each CO’s contract guidelines may differ from other Private JETs, so make sure that you fully understand the terms of your individual contract as presented to you in English. Keep a copy of this contract in your desk at all times. If you have not received a contract in English from your supervisor or your school is unwilling to legibly translate your Japanese contract into English, please contact your PA immediately.
Work Hours[]
Private school JETS may have a very different schedule from a public school JET. Your contract should state your full time work hours that you need to follow. It should also state clauses for scheduled work events or other special situations where you may have to work outside of your normal work hours, along with flexible compensation for that amount of time. However, private JETs SHOULD NOT exceed 35 hours working per week.
Teaching Hours[]
Keep a weekly schedule near you at all times, including the start and end times of each period. Make sure that you capitalize the free time you have at work, no matter how much or little you receive.
The amount of hours you teach at your school will greatly vary between JETs. Schools have been notified about the amount of hours a JET should be teaching in class per week. However, it is up to the school, as well as your supervisor to decide how effectively their JET is being used. It is important to speak with your supervisor about your work hours if you are teaching too few, or too many classes a week.
School Year[]
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Tardiness[]
Do not be late for work or your classes, as tardiness is frowned upon. However, there are situations in which a train delay might prevent you from getting to work on time. When a train is delayed in Japan, the staff at each station where a delayed train stops will distribute a 電車遅延証明書 (densha chien shoumeisho) or train delay certificate which can be provided to a boss, a teacher, school administrator, or another person in authority as an acceptable excuse for being late.
If you use a vehicle, like a bus or bike, to commute to work and are delayed by traffic, it will not be an excuse for being late.
If your train is late, a station attendant will often be standing on the platform or else at the ticket gate handing out the certificates to exiting passengers. If not, go to the counter by the ticket gate and say: Chien shoumeishou onegai shimasu. (May I please have a chien shoumeishou?)
Overtime[]
JET does not require for you to work overtime. Working overtime is a cultural norm in Japan, but you are not obligated to work past your normal work hours. It is your own decision to stay later than your normal work hours; do not expect compensation.
Yearly Paid Leave[]
All first year public and private school JETs receive at least 10 days of paid leave (nenkyuu, 年休) after working at least 80% of work days between their contract start date and January (a period of 6 months).
For private JETs, this leave is distributed differently depending on each CO, so please refer to your contract for information about your leave or ask your supervisor.
Leave expires if it is not used within 2 years of it being granted.
How to Use[]
Speak with your supervisor first before making any concrete travel and leave decisions, and keep detailed records of your paid leave requests. Please notify all of your JTEs of your future absence as well. Try not to take paid leave during busy periods in the school year, or on days in which you have classes.
Paid leave may be used by the day or by the hour. For example, you can use 3 hours of paid leave in order to leave work early if you have some business to attend to (unless otherwise instructed by your supervisor).
Leave replaces your working hours and does not affect any time that you would have usually had off.
Sick & Special Leave[]
Private school JETs may or may not receive a fixed amount of paid sick days to take separate from your annual paid leave. Each school decides their own sick leave standards since sick leave is not set out in the labor law. Please contact your supervisor for details specific to your school.
Special leave would normally be provided in cases of the death of a parent, spouse, maternity/ paternity leave, or when the supervisor grants permission. Please see the contract provided to you by your school or talk to your supervisor for more information.
JET Accident Insurance[]
In the case of an accident or prolonged hospitalization, please talk to your school. However, all JETs can make a claim with CLAIR's JET Accident Insurance. Please refer to this page for more information on what JET Accident Insurance covers and how to file a claim.
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