Detailed living expenses?

I know this has been asked before, but I am looking for a somewhat-detailed explanation of monthly living expenses in Japan (ie. tax, insurance, etc). I am interested in teaching English and I see that most job postings offer 250,000 to 300,000 yen per month. Is it possible to support two people (myself and my partner) on a teacher's salary and still have a surplus of around 75,000 yen? We will need internet access in our apartment, as well. My partner is currently unable to work in Japan as he is not qualified to teach and does not speak Japanese. I expect to acquire a work visa via sponsorship and my partner expects to acquire a working holiday visa (unless we get married, in which case he will acquire a spousal visa). So, can we do it?

Chelle, neither teaching experience/qualifications nor Japanese skills are necessary to find teaching jobs in Japan. The majority of people arriving here to teach English conversation are fresh out of university (or haven't yet been in the case of working holiday visas) and don't speak a word of Japanese, so your partner has as much chance of getting a teaching job as anyone.

A spousal visa is for spouses of Japanese nationals- if he gets a visa through you it will be a dependent visa, not spousal.

For more info on jobs, visas and living expenses, have a look at the site http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewforum.php?f=11

I have linked to the Japan page of Dave's ESL cafe, a site dedicated to info on teaching in various countries. If you do a search one of the posters there has made up a list of living expenses in Japan, how much you can expect to save on a teacher's salary etc.

Most jobs these days start at less than 250,000 yen, and I wouldn't like to have to support two people on that salary in one of the larger cities.

It could be done, but that would depend on where you live and what kind of lifestyle you have. It could be done if you live in a very small place and pretty much don't do too much in your eveyday life.
If your boyfriend can't teach English, perhaps he could get a job at a bar/restaurant or something
like that.

Sira - Her boyfriend may not be a native English speaker which is what's usually required for an English teaching job.

If he weren't a native speaker, I would have thought she would have given that as a reason rather than "he doesn't speak Japanese".

These days there are plenty of non-native speakers with good English teaching anyway- I know Bulgarians, Filipinos, Pakistanis and Senegalese who teach English, among others.

Thank you very much for your responses! My partner is a native English speaker, but he does not have a university degree. He graduated from college and has a 2 year college diploma. He currently works as a game artist, which only requires an artistic portfolio. He knows that landing a game job in Japan as an artist are slim to nil. Therefore, I will be handling the expenses and student loan payments (hence the surplus we need). My partner is planning to do freelance work (which is why we need internet access in our home), but that is never guaranteed, steady income. I am an experienced ESL teacher here in Canada and I am a certified teacher. Will these qualifications affect my chances/income? Again, thank you so much for your responses and continued help!

Chelle,

A few points:
- If you get married, your boyfriend will only be able to be on "Dependent" visa, which allows him to be in Japan with you, but he will have to obtain separate permission on top of it to do any paid work.
- About his freelance work - be careful who he gets paid by, and where he pays taxes. If he is in Japan working and earning money... well, there have been some debates on this, but he may after all need some kind of working visa for Japan. If he is eligible and can get Working Holiday Visa, that would be no problem.

For your teaching job prospect, please read through the site mentioned by Sira.

Are you working for a school board or an educational institution in Canada? friends of mine were and they got a job, through their school board, with the Japanese twin city of their home town in Alberta. Drawback was that they were in the boonies (good size town but not that touristy) Bonus was that they got the use of a house and a car (they had to give classes in several schools all over the place). Right now they are doing the same thing in Europe.

I work for a school board. Thank you for that info! I will definitely look into it!