Quote: (08-05-2014 01:53 PM)memcpy Wrote:
Japan is a nice country but it also killed me when some months I had to pay National health insurance (18,000 yen) (every month)
State Tax ( 10,000 yen) (pay twice per year)
Insurance ( 1,000 yen) (every month)
National pension (18,000 yen) (every month)
cell (3,000 - 7,000 yen)
Some months killed me having to pay around 70,000 yen (about $681 in todays market) mostly to the Japanese government.
And some other miscellaneous costs starts adding up.
If the company hires you I wouldn't take anything under 230,000 yen a month contract. Anything less, then you might have to work + teach private lessons outside of work.
Long term , being an English teacher in Japan is kind of a dead-end job, unless you shoot for the colleges, private schools, and companies that aren't affiliated with dispatch companies. At the same time, its rewarding and I was happy with the arrangement I had.
ALSO word has it that in 2020, the Japanese government Ministry of Education? I think, is going to change the way English is taught in Japan, not sure what they are going to do but I suspect that dispatch companies are going to start squeezing more pennies out of their ALT's and cash out before it happens.
This is a great point, very accurate as far as taxes you have to pay in Japan. It adds up.
memcpy what kind of tax returns did you get? I got roughly Y30000 and Y60000 back my first two years of filing taxes, but didn't understand how they calculated it exactly.