The Jet Programme

The Jet Programme was started about 30 years ago by the Japanese government in order to promote internationalization. Those applicants who pass the rigorous interview process are accepted to live and work in Japan as an assistant to the (mainly Japanese) English teachers. Originally a partnership with Britain, it has expanded to around 40 countries.

The Canadian (Toronto) version of the Programme was fairly impressive. Traditionally, a limited variety of misfits and outcasts claim to be "interested in Japanese culture". This usually translates to an unhealthy fixation with manga (Japanese comics), There's also the karate / kendo crew, forever going on about the size of their "dojo". There's a bit of overlap here with the "exotic" Japan crowd, who long to be part of the tea ceremony & flower arranging. Last, but not least, are those who are attracted by the allure of what is claimed (on sites such as Big Daikon) to be easy/high pay for little/no work. Yet, the Toronto crowd were pretty smart, cool people. Further, critics of the Programme say that there is a bias towards blond, blue-eyed males or attractive, big-busted females (the argument is that the Japanese students won't feel they are being taught by a "real" foreigner if they are black, Indian, or, especially, Asian). However, Toronto participants offered a wide range of people: long-haired, pierced, black, gay, you name it.

We had a pretty wide-ranging orientation in T.O. Unfortunately, due to my having focused on Japan in my studies (3 years East Asian Studies and about 5 years personally), I was familiar with most of the info already. It may be overkill, but I'm always ultra-organized, and had already itemized the relevant / necessary info. A few other people did as well, but, as many of these people were leaving the country / living alone for the first time in their lives, it looked like a lot of this was to console Mom and Dad that Timmy / Tammy was going to be okay.

Before we left, we had a final meeting at which we were told not to embarrass the Programme "like two people from Canada did last year". The next day at the airport, I found out that this was referring to a person who had attempted to skip out on a taxi bill and another who had left suddenly in the middle of the work year. Actually, as I waited in the airport lounge, a fellow JET was talking about their reservations about life in Japan. About a week later, this same person dropped out of the Programme (before work had started).

When we went on to Tokyo for more orientation, the quality of the application procedure was confirmed: there were a lot of cool people. However, most people found three more days of orientation and mandatory workshops to be overkill and we were itching to go to our host prefectures.