How Much Can You Save as an ALT in Japan?

Dotonbori Street, Osaka

I've been receiving a lot of emails lately asking how much they can earn and save as a Language Teacher in Japan. A safe answer would be, it depends on a lot of things. Are you teaching in school or in language schools or in companies? Are you hired part-time or full-time? Is housing and health insurance part of your benefits or not? Will you be living in big cities, small cities or far-flung areas? If you're living in really rural places, do they have nuclear crisis or none? For transportation, are you going to use a car, the trains, a bicycle or your two feet?

I could go on and on about the many factors or how much you can earn and save as a teacher in Japan.

But let me just share with you my own experience, cause really, that's the best thing I can talk about.

I earn around 200,000 JPY monthly from my work as an ALT.  I could earn more or less depending on the number of school days in each month.



I live in a small, artistic and generally vibrant city of Hamamatsu. The cost of living is not as high as that in Nagoya, Tokyo or Osaka. My apartment costs me 43,000 or 45,000 JPY  a month. This includes water and internet. It's also furnished with TV, airconditioner, refrigerator, stove, microwave oven and washing machine. So I'm kinda renting all these monthly. I live about 10 kilometers from the station, 20 minutes by walking per Google map's advise. My place is pretty convenient with 7/11. Domino's Pizza and several supermarkets within walking distance. The neighborhood is quiet, it's not along a major highway. And what I love most is the river behind it where I can jog in the summer and autumn. I could find a cheaper place but I didn't get around to doing it.

Anyway, I also have to pay my cellphone bill worth 8,000-9,000 monthly. Then there's gas for the water heater and electricity which is worth 5,000-7,000 monthly depending on the season. My bills are lower in the spring and autumn. I'm also out almost the whole day and I'm seldom home on weekends.

Now aside from all these things, I have to pay the taxes and health insurance. I honestly don't know anymore what taxes I'm paying.  Sometimes I see my passbook with City Tax deductions and then sometimes it's Prefectural Tax.  I just try to leave my bank around with 30,000-35,000 monthly for taxes and health insurance.

I use buses and trains for transportation. The costs are all reimbursed by my company so I'm not counting them as bills. But, in a month, I usually spend 11,000-15,000 on transportation.

As for food, I pay for the school lunch worth 315 a day. I usually spend 5,000-7,000 monthly for that. What I like about the school lunch is it's quantity. It's enough to help me last until dinner time so most of the time I'll just have something light for dinner. I'm not so much into food but I spend around 10,000 monthly for food.

With everything I said, around 100,000- 120,000 goes to all the things I have to pay. It's around half of what I earn. Not bad, I would say.

But then, I love travelling and that drains my bank account. I also go to the gym costing me 9,000 monthly. I try to save around 50,000 JPY or more in a month. Just have to discipline myself sometimes.

I save more by doing part-time job, 3-4 times a week. Work hard to travel harder is my motto.

From all of these, I hope you could see that YOU COULD SAVE A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT. As an ALT, this work is worth doing if only to save some money.