Reasons ALTs Break Contract

• Culture shock
• Depression
• Death
• Another job
• Boredom
• ALT life
• Horrible school(s)
• Unappreciated
• Missing your loved ones
• Communication

There are so many reasons why JETs want to break their contracts. 99% of the time, the excuses aren’t excusable (yes, there are always exceptions). However, BE AN ADULT, USE YOUR RESOURCES, and GROW AS PERSON. You took this long-distance job, which took almost a year of preparation, knowing you would be overseas in a foreign country different from your own. Take advantage of the opportunity!

Mottainai – don’t let it go to waste

Just because you are going through culture shock, does not mean it will last forever. There are only four stages. You don’t back out of the second stage and call it quits! That’s loser talk. Make light of your situation. You have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to be among locals of a different culture than your own. People are very welcoming whether you know it or not. Your schools and BOE appreciate you for moving there. The best thing is that the JET Program is only a one-year program. It’s even less when you count all the public holidays, vacations, and school time off. By the time you finish your contract, you’ll be wanting more, at least another year or two. I promise!

Think of all the government bureaucracy involved in hiring you in the first place. You didn’t just fill out one paper and be granted a work visa in Japan. You had to complete a very long application in the online portal, write a long statement of purpose, and pass an interview. Putting in all that effort, along with the other paperwork and moving out of work just to move abroad, should be a signal of what you’re throwing away.

The consequences

Let’s be clear, breaking your contract is not like quitting. Quitting has no consequences. If you could quit, it would be easy to replace you with someone else. Hiring someone from overseas doesn’t work like that.

Depending on when you break your contract, the BOE will have a time frame to replace you. For example, if you break your contract just before summer starts, well, it will be much easier to replace you with an upgrade candidate. However, if you break off mid to late fall, it will be impossible to replace you until the start of the new school semester, which begins in spring from April. In that time, the school will be without an ALT or they will need to divide other ALTs up to cover your school.

BOEs who have rough contract breaks, regrettably won’t bother contracting JETs again… Usually, they’ll fill the gap with third-party contracts or “dispatch” workers from Interac and Altia.

How much will you owe after breaking your contract?

That all depends on what is stipulated by your contract. If you break your contract just after arrival, be prepared to give 200,000-300,000 yen or 2-3k USD for all the costs of your hotel, flight, travel, and other miscellaneous expenses. This might not sound that expensive but remember you burdened everyone else who put in the effort to get you there go to waste, including yourself.

REPAYMENT OF TRAVEL EXPENSES

“JET Participants who violate terms and conditions by, for example, failing to complete the full duration of their appointment without due reason, or become disqualified through committing inappropriate acts after arriving in Japan, will bear the full cost of traveling home. In addition, these participants must repay to their contracting organization the cost of travel to Japan and other expenses incurred by the contracting organization, including those costs for housing in cases in which the contracting organization has already made arrangements.”

Expenses occurred if breaking your contract mid-way:

• Apartment Lease (key money and security deposit) – 100,000 – 200,000 yen
  • Cleaning deposit 20,000 -30,000 yen
  • Disposal of furniture and goods – 10,000 – 20,000 yen
• Cellular contract break – 0 to 20,000 yen.
• Flight expenses (ESID) from your country to Japan – 100,000 – 200,000 yen
• Utility bills – 5,000 – 20,000 yen
• Other liabilities not listed such as car insurance, internet, etc.

Not all of these will apply to you depending on your contract breakage, but yes, you are not only responsible for your JET Program contract. These expenses are less the longer you stay in Japan. E.g. breaking your contract a month before your contract finishes won’t be the same as quitting a month or two in. You just won’t have a free flight home.

AITA for breaking my contract?

Probably not…
But it’s good to self-reflect on the situation before taking that big step. Seek advice from your BOE advisor, talk with your PAs, and reach out to CLAIR about the hardship you’re facing before breaking your contract.

Situations at home such as the death or sickness of a family member are unavoidable. If you can’t stay in Japan, by all means, ask for help, so you can leave on good terms. No one will hate you for doing what is necessary.

However, if you’re going through culture shock and stress, well, you should make every attempt to better your sanity before deciding to quit. Some ALTs think it is impossible to change the minds of their JTEs or have better working conditions. But you do have rights in Japan. Speak up and don’t let things fester inside you. The worst thing you can do is not take action. Language barriers and facial expressions are not the same from culture to culture. Japanese people may not understand how you are feeling and neither will anyone else if you don’t speak up.

Take some action!

Speaking out will relieve stress and improve your situation. Many foreigners think being indirect is the appropriate way to act in Japan. Well, it’s not! You’ll never improve your situation without first being vocal about what is going wrong.

You may be underutilized at school and it bores you to sleep. If that is the case, talk with your supervisor, tantosha, principal, and Japanese teachers of English about the problems and how they can be fixed. Take action if your situation sucks. Sitting around will never improve it.

Learn Japanese and about Japanese Culture, and take the initiative to immerse yourself. A lot of foreigners think Japan is going to follow their cultural norms, but it’s not! Keep trying till you accomplish your goals. For example, getting my Japanese driver’s license wasn’t an easy task… It took me FOUR times to pass the driving exam (I even yelled at the instructor!). I paid for a driving class and a map of the driving course. I even made a driving course in my video game to simulate the one I needed to do at the licensing center. I repeatedly trained myself repeatedly in Japanese car culture and finally achieved my goal before summer. It was insane and a giant relief once I could rent and drive cars whenever I wanted.

Set realistic goals and expectations

Below is the HELL I went through to get my license. I studied this map like it was a final college exam. I translated every little part and even put it in a video game called “Track Mania.” Yes, it was worth it in the end because it was a very achievable goal, something that didn’t take N1-level Japanese to get or a fancy car. Getting my license made everything in Japan more reachable. That is what you want, goals and expectations are obtainable that will make you happier overall on the program.

Look at my face – I was so happy to get it after going through all the hoops. It was hard af to get in my prefecture. I was sweaty, hot, mess but proud to finally have a Japanese driver’s license. You will never see me look happier than this except in the next photo where I am driving a rental car.

Look at me, I did! My friend visited and this was my first rental car ever. I only had one chance to drive before this, a year before my international license expired. I never owned a car in Kumamoto because I never needed one where I lived in the city. Driving this cheap kei car was one of the best times in Japan and a relief because I earned some “freedom.” I wasn’t just handed my license; I had to earn it. But earning it meant that I was part of Japanese society since driving in Japan is very much a right of passage.

My goal of getting a driver’s license was very achievable. It wasn’t something like passing N1 or even N3 for that matter. It was something I could do and feel proud about. The end goal of a driver’s license was, for someone without one, to freely rent cars and drive around. It was also another form of ID :: wink wink::, so I could use it instead of my foreigner card.

Set goals and keep your contract and sanity

Japan can be a strenuous or boring country. Every situation is different (ESID), but you can beat the culture shock and the hardships by making the most of your time. If you’re stuck on what to do, turn to YouTube, blogs, forums, friends, teachers, and students for ideas and challenges that still prevent you from up and leaving. As an ALT or foreigner working/living in Japan, nothing will work out exactly the way you want. No one is there to babysit you and hand you a gold medal. But you can always earn it.