My case (financial/work situation)

[KCLenny]

Hi all, I’m looking for some advice on my situation.
I am not a specialist in anything. I don’t have a super high level in any particular field.
I’ve worked at an eikaiwa for the last 5 years (sole proprietorship place, so very small), and that has done me well enough generally.
But I’m feeling like it’s getting less and less stable. The boss is mismanaging the place and the staff and it’s becoming awful to work there.
I’ve been looking at other similarish jobs though not much going around in Kyoto from what I can see. So here’s my situation.

My job
Currently I get between 240,000 and 290,000 a month (after tax, take home pay).
BUT I only have national health and pension.
I don’t have any shakai hoken or any benefits whatsoever at my place. No bonuses ever either. And my hourly rate hasn’t increased in the 5 years I’ve been there. I work about 30 hours a week.
I’m married (we are both British) and my wife works part time at a tea ceremony place for tourists.

We just moved in to a small rental bungalow that has a large field so I’m gardening and growing stuff in that (gardening and composting, all the stuff is my obsession!).
The rent is 72,000 a month.
We don’t really go out, we basically never have holidays, I’ve been back to the uk once in the 5 years we’ve been here and not looking to go back again if I can help it. Especially not for a prolonged period of time!
We cook basically all our meals at home, and shop around to get good prices (I never pay full price for meat at super markets).
I’m fully in the Rakuten ecosystem so get thousands of points every month (currently on 30,000).
We don’t have any debts (uk student finance doesn’t count because don’t earn anywhere close enough to pay it off!)

All the jobs I’ve been seeing that I meet the requirements for all seem to be a massive increase to my hours, AND and massive cut to my pay. 40 hours a week, but only getting like 190,000 take home pay but that is after shakai hoken and tax. They seem to have bonuses though, and some seem to be offering seishain after a year which I’m lead to believe is a good thing.

So does anyone have any sagely advice for me? Should I just take another job and accept less pay and more hours but get stability and better pension in the future? Stay where I am? Something third option?


Some miscellaneous points
Neither me nor my wife can drive nor have we ever had a license.
We have 500,000 in emergency savings (just in a bank account for easy emergency access).
We put 15,000 in a NISA every month and don’t touch it.
We pay fuka kokumin nenkin.
My Japanese level is between N4 and N3. And I just started having private lessons again, twice a week.
I have the minimum 10 years paid into my UK public pension. But my wife doesn’t because she never worked in the uk.

[Beaglehound]

If you are here for the long haul and in Kyoto one option would be to get yourself a relevant Masters qualification and look to break into the university market. Takes time and money for sure but I think you are still relatively young? Whether another eikaiwa would be better is hard to say, but one advantage may be your wife would probably get dependant status with shakai hoken, which should be a significant saving on outgoings.

[Tsumitate Wrestler]

You forgot to mention (a) general location {Kyoto is large} (b) general health status (c) age range (d) work experience outside of English teaching.

If you are only working 30 hours a week, my general advice would be to get a part-time job once a week at a garden center and embrace your passion.

Also, you have a Japanese tutor that you meet once a week. Perhaps they can give you some tips on how to set-up a language tutoring service?

[KCLenny]

You forgot to mention (a) general location {Kyoto is large} (b) general health status (c) age range (d) work experience outside of English teaching.

If you are only working 30 hours a week, my general advice would be to get a part-time job once a week at a garden center and embrace your passion.

Also, you have a Japanese tutor that you meet once a week. Perhaps they can give you some tips on how to set-up a language tutoring service?

Thanks for the advice and heads up on missing information.

I’m in Fushimi,
General health I would say is fine. I do take regular medicine and go to the doc’s at least once a month but it’s nothing that stops me working generally.
Age, 33. (Wife 29)
Work experience outside teaching, in Japan I’ve done hotel cleaning, bar work.
In the uk I worked in retail, and in a nursing home (for people with disabilities).


I work 30 hours a week but it’s not like I have lots of spare time. I’m still at work 5 days a week. And one of my “days off” I have a few private students I teach.
But I could possibly ask my Japanese teacher, although he’s online only and works mostly in Africa teaching Japanese in various universities there. He just teaches me privately because I used to go to a language school in Kyoto he worked at before a few years ago.

If you are here for the long haul and in Kyoto one option would be to get yourself a relevant Masters qualification and look to break into the university market. Takes time and money for sure but I think you are still relatively young? Whether another eikaiwa would be better is hard to say, but one advantage may be your wife would probably get dependant status with shakai hoken, which should be a significant saving on outgoings.

University is just so far out of the question.
I do not have the money or time for such a big commitment and stress right now (I gave myself an ulcer the last time I went to uni for my undergrad!).

What do you mean about my wife getting dependent status though?

[Tsumitate Wrestler]

So essentially you feel your employment is unstable, and you cannot find comparable paying positions.

You can:

A. Keep looking, and invest in networking. JALT, TESOL etc
B. Upskill in your field. {CELTA, MA} or leverage your existing knowledge.
C. Upskill in another field that you are interested in / familiar with
D. Pick up more PT work, side hustles, remote work.

There is no magic bullet. The Ekaiwa industry is in bad shape. You may never find something comparable in your area.

I work 30 hours a week but it’s not like I have lots of spare time. I’m still at work 5 days a week. And one of my “days off” I have a few private students I teach.

Most people in my MA cohort worked 40 hours a week, often with families. You do not have to match that level of commitment, but you do have time for something. I would recommend networking, as it is likely to expose you to more possibilities.

I would caution against the self limiting language. You are young, you have time, you can do any of these things.

[Beaglehound]

You forgot to mention (a) general location {Kyoto is large} (b) general health status (c) age range (d) work experience outside of English teaching.

If you are only working 30 hours a week, my general advice would be to get a part-time job once a week at a garden center and embrace your passion.

Also, you have a Japanese tutor that you meet once a week. Perhaps they can give you some tips on how to set-up a language tutoring service?

Thanks for the advice and heads up on missing information.

I’m in Fushimi,
General health I would say is fine. I do take regular medicine and go to the doc’s at least once a month but it’s nothing that stops me working generally.
Age, 33. (Wife 29)
Work experience outside teaching, in Japan I’ve done hotel cleaning, bar work.
In the uk I worked in retail, and in a nursing home (for people with disabilities).


I work 30 hours a week but it’s not like I have lots of spare time. I’m still at work 5 days a week. And one of my “days off” I have a few private students I teach.
But I could possibly ask my Japanese teacher, although he’s online only and works mostly in Africa teaching Japanese in various universities there. He just teaches me privately because I used to go to a language school in Kyoto he worked at before a few years ago.

If you are here for the long haul and in Kyoto one option would be to get yourself a relevant Masters qualification and look to break into the university market. Takes time and money for sure but I think you are still relatively young? Whether another eikaiwa would be better is hard to say, but one advantage may be your wife would probably get dependant status with shakai hoken, which should be a significant saving on outgoings.

University is just so far out of the question.
I do not have the money or time for such a big commitment and stress right now (I gave myself an ulcer the last time I went to uni for my undergrad!).

What do you mean about my wife getting dependent status though?

If you are on shakai hoken and your wife earns under a certain amount (used to be 1.3m yen a year, not sure if it still is) she will get her pension and health insurance for free basically.

[kuma]

We just moved in to a small rental bungalow that has a large field so I’m gardening and growing stuff in that (gardening and composting, all the stuff is my obsession!).
The rent is 72,000 a month.
We don’t really go out, we basically never have holidays, I’ve been back to the uk once in the 5 years we’ve been here and not looking to go back again if I can help it. Especially not for a prolonged period of time!
We cook basically all our meals at home, and shop around to get good prices (I never pay full price for meat at super markets).
I’m fully in the Rakuten ecosystem so get thousands of points every month (currently on 30,000).
We don’t have any debts (uk student finance doesn’t count because don’t earn anywhere close enough to pay it off!)

Firstly, hats off. Sounds like you're living frugally and taking steps to consider your financial future.

I’ve worked at an eikaiwa for the last 5 years (sole proprietorship place, so very small), and that has done me well enough generally.
But I’m feeling like it’s getting less and less stable. The boss is mismanaging the place and the staff and it’s becoming awful to work there.
I’ve been looking at other similarish jobs though not much going around in Kyoto from what I can see. So here’s my situation.

teaching private lessons

How are the private lessons going? Are you teaching 1-to-1? If so, there's potential to scale this up to group lessons, maximising the profitability. Also, are you claiming all expenses if doing tax returns? If not, there might be scope to maximise profitability in this case through a bit of bookwork. Private lessons could be a growth area whilst taking the positives of the current job (5yr history there implies you know the systems inside out, and the steady paycheque) and mitigating the negatives (mismanagement, etc). Over time, could change the ratio of employed / self-employed teaching (if you're employer accepted you going down from 5 days to 4, for example). Some people parlay this type of thing into full-time or semi-full-time self-employment. Still doesn't get shakai hoken, but avoids bad bosses, and can maximise profitability. Can sound scary to some, but you've already taken the first step of teaching privately and already have a track record of teaching group lessons (presumably?) at your eikaiwa; no intrinsic reason from your post why the private lessons can't be scaled up.

I have the minimum 10 years paid into my UK public pension. But my wife doesn’t because she never worked in the uk.

Does your wife have (1) a period of 3yrs of continuous UK residency in her past (even in childhood), and (2) a national insurance number (NINO)*? If yes and yes, she would be eligible to make voluntary Class 3 contributions despite no UK work history. Could be something to consider for the future, even if finances are strained now to make the annual Class 3 contributions (approx 200,000 yen per year).

* many people who were resident in the UK when they turned 16 would have automatically been issued with a NINO if their parents/guardians were registered for child benefit (which happens in the majority of cases).

[Wales4rugbyWC23]

You forgot to mention (a) general location {Kyoto is large} (b) general health status (c) age range (d) work experience outside of English teaching.

If you are only working 30 hours a week, my general advice would be to get a part-time job once a week at a garden center and embrace your passion.

Also, you have a Japanese tutor that you meet once a week. Perhaps they can give you some tips on how to set-up a language tutoring service?

Thanks for the advice and heads up on missing information.

I’m in Fushimi,
General health I would say is fine. I do take regular medicine and go to the doc’s at least once a month but it’s nothing that stops me working generally.
Age, 33. (Wife 29)
Work experience outside teaching, in Japan I’ve done hotel cleaning, bar work.
In the uk I worked in retail, and in a nursing home (for people with disabilities).


I work 30 hours a week but it’s not like I have lots of spare time. I’m still at work 5 days a week. And one of my “days off” I have a few private students I teach.
But I could possibly ask my Japanese teacher, although he’s online only and works mostly in Africa teaching Japanese in various universities there. He just teaches me privately because I used to go to a language school in Kyoto he worked at before a few years ago.

If you are here for the long haul and in Kyoto one option would be to get yourself a relevant Masters qualification and look to break into the university market. Takes time and money for sure but I think you are still relatively young? Whether another eikaiwa would be better is hard to say, but one advantage may be your wife would probably get dependant status with shakai hoken, which should be a significant saving on outgoings.

University is just so far out of the question.
I do not have the money or time for such a big commitment and stress right now (I gave myself an ulcer the last time I went to uni for my undergrad!).

What do you mean about my wife getting dependent status though?

Definately the UK masters distance learning programs have become a lot more expensive since I did them 20 years ago. Have you thought about doing either in Japan or at a non-English speaking counties' university. This reason I ask is that my wife completeld distance learning Masters in Poland during Covid, all classes were English, her teacher was Ukrainian. This Masters were very reasonable priced. This April she will start her first part time Uni classes in Japan, she is also a non-naitive English speaker.

[AreTheyTheLemmings?]

I do have one piece of advice I feel might be valuable, but it's predicated on something. So, if I'm not being too impertinent, could I ask you one thing in advance?

Am I correct in thinking that you're quite an introvert?

[RetireJapan]

If you are here for the long haul and in Kyoto one option would be to get yourself a relevant Masters qualification and look to break into the university market.

Really wouldn't recommend this from scratch at the moment.

1. Doing a distance MA is expensive and time consuming (I found mine, MA TEFL at Birmingham) very hard going and almost didn't complete it.
2. The university sector is shrinking (some might say it is in a death spiral) with falling student numbers leading to staff cuts
3. More and more qualified teachers are chasing fewer and fewer jobs, as uni jobs are traditionally the top of the pole for English teaching
4. To have a meaningful shot at a full-time job you likely need a Ph.D, experience teaching at a Japanese university, research papers, and decent Japanese skills