Comments on: One arm of the JET program possibly misappropriating funds

By: Adamu

Adamu — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 05:14:30 +0000

The downward trend continues, now under 5,000:
http://www.soumu.go.jp/s-news/2008/080725_1.html

By: Adamu

Adamu — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 05:11:16 +0000

Sort of. It is funded through redistributed local taxes (地方交付税) so all prefectures have equal access to the program. But local finances are getting squeezed so it is possible that the decline comes from municipalities opting to use those funds for something else while getting a better deal on private-sector ALTs.

I made this point back in 2006. Maybe pretty soon I’ll do an update to see how the program has fared over the past 3 years or so.
http://www.mutantfrog.com/2006/07/21/is-japan-getting-bored-with-english-lets-hope-so/

By: Roy Berman

Roy Berman — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 03:12:03 +0000

Yeah but aren’t the JET salaries actually paid by the local governments, with the national government only doing the recruiting and so on? That’s why the number of JETs has declined, as local governments and schools decide to save money by bypassing JET and hiring through those ALT-hiring companies that advertise on Gaijinpot all the time.

By: Adamu

Adamu — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 01:39:05 +0000

$120 million could easily fund the “Vanity Fair – gaijin edition” that Curzon proposes. It could even be positioned as a JET sister publication, with free subscriptions for the ALTs and CIRs.

By: Joe Jones

Joe Jones — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 01:05:32 +0000

I propose that the money be re-purposed to provide better unemployment benefits for foreign lawyers.

By: Curzon

Curzon — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 00:50:25 +0000

Awesome post. It is such a waste that this is posted here on a blog. This kind of stuff should be printed in Vanity Fair or something.

By: Adamu

Adamu — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 00:13:38 +0000

I am just saying it could be. It’s over $120 million, so even if one JET cost $60,000 a year all included they could accept over 2,000 more people, 2/3 more than the current total. While I am sure the money is budgeted for something else, theoretically it could be put to much more effective use anywhere (such as my free cookie idea).

By: Joe Jones

Joe Jones — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:28:42 +0000

Is the kanryo-slush-fund part really at the expense of the prospective teacher? The program probably wouldn’t be getting as much money from the local governments if it wasn’t sending some of their people to midtown Manhattan—this appears to be part of the motivation to fund it.

Anyway, this probably still pales in comparison to the river-paving budget, and at least it actually accomplishes something.

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 16:21:12 +0000

(Disclaimer: Former JET)

CLAIR use to put up the new JETs at the Keio Plaza Hotel in Nishi Shinjuku, and then have a year end conference for returning JETs down in Kobe. Some of that money, like travel costs, came from the JETs’ municipalities, but a honkin’ chunk of it came from CLAIR. And it was funny because it was always the CLAIR folks that would give the keynote addresses, where some piece of luggage in a suit would wobble up to the podium and crank out two sentences in English, usually to the effect that he couldn’t speak English and that he would do the rest of the speech in Japanese, with consecutive interpretation to rescue the situation.

Of course, I was witnessing this years before I knew what “amakudari” was all about.

2008 was the (latest) year of food scandals, and perhaps 2009 will be the year of the language scandals. Kanji Kentei, and now JET? What next, NOVA? (oh, wait…)