Working in Japan.

Some may think it might be a bit late going to Japan. All the stories about people making good money over there seem to be diminishing. However that is not completely true, there is still a good chance to make a good living teaching English in Japan.
There are many avenues to do this. The first obstacle to overcome is getting the right visa.
The most common visa's are:
Working holiday (Degree is required)
Tourist Visa --> covert to sponsored working visa (degree required)
Sponsored Working Visa (usually obtained by an English school prior to going to Japan, degree is required)
Spouse Visa - Degree is not required however would help when applying for jobs.
Other visa eg. student visa, religious visa, cultural visa etc.

Once you have a visa, with permission to work you can get started.
First choose will you work for someone else, or will you do your own business.
Working for someone else is probably the easiest way, but may not be the most rewarding.
The most common companies for English teaching include:
Minerva, Berlitz, Aeon, applying directly to public schools, finding one of the many ALT recruitment companies, applying directly to one of the many international pre-schools/schools.
The main site: MechaJapan has more information on companies to apply with.

If you want to work for yourself teaching English, you need to look at whether you are going to to private tuition or start your own school.
With private tuition, you need to look at location, price, and advertising.
Advertising is very important, as your availability needs to be seen by as many students as possible. Use both online and offline places.
Offline places, include: noticeboards at International centres, shopping centres, and other noticeboards. Handing out business cards, handing out advertisements, post box advertising, ads in local newspapers/magazines.
Online there is a multitude of places to advertise. One good place to start would be with tuition companies, such as the ones at:
English Teaching Links

To start your own school, you should decided whether you will use an existing franchise or start your own name.
Starting your own school is outside the scope of this article, however I hope the above material has given you some hope.
As far as salary expectations, the salary has dropped over the past or barely stayed the same over the past decade, so you may be receiving the same pay today as if you taught back in 2000, such as 250,000yen per month full time.
That kind of salary for working for an English school, is not that appealing, however it is ample to enjoy your time in Japan if you don't overspend, and can find cheap accommodation. (under 40,000yen/mth)
Thanks for reading,
Lindsay Woolcott