JET may be cut?

I had a penpal friend in Japan tell me that JET may soon be cut from the gov't due to money problems. Any one know anything about this?

Yes, there is discussion about what to do about the JET programme, however at this point there hasn't been any decision either way. If it does survive, more than likely it will see budget cuts and a reduction in hiring, which has already been the case over the last few years.

I was hoping to get to Japan through JET. Ill have ton find another way to get there. any ideas?

When are you applying? Next year's applications are due around the end of November so you may still want to apply. You can always apply to private alt and eikawa positions closer to the summer.

If its farther off in the future than that then just wait till you're closer and see what the situation with JET and other companies is at at the time. If things do change with the JET program its liable to affect the entire industry.

I don't think the program will be cut, however I think there will be "cut backs". Even now if you compare the number of JETs in 2002 to the number of JETs today, the number is nearly half of the 2002 numbers.

It will be a while before I could work with JET, I'm about to be a freshman in college, so I don't quite have all the requirements to join yet ( I think you need a BA, correct?)
It will be a few years before I could do any JET work.

For ideas on other ways to get teaching work in Japan, do a search on this site or on google for "teaching English in Japan".

It is not as easy to find jobs these days as when I fist came to Japan to teach English, but there are still quite a few options and there is loads of information about it on the internet, including lots of discussions about it on this site.

Have a look at the FAQs of the Japan forum of http://www.eslcafe.com for starters.