Nova Corporation is one of the biggest English teaching school in Japan. It could be the easiest way for you to find a job if you have a BA in any field and you are a native speaker in any of the taught languages. They teach Chinese, English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.
The Nova Group is the largest of the Big Four eikaiwa (or private English teaching companies) in Japan, with approximately 50% of total market share. In 2004, Nova totaled about 70.6 billion yen in sales, and as of March, 2004, there were 618 Nova branches and the Multimedia Center located in Osaka, Japan.This sounds pretty big company and you might expect a good benefit including health insurance. But wikipedia says,
Typical monthly pay for a new instructor ranges from ¥220,000-¥290,000 before taxes, rent and utilities, according to their website. Actual salaries are about ¥180,000 for part time, and ¥220,000 for the most common 34 hour per week shift, and ¥250,000 for those who by virtue of their visa must work 40 hours per week. Nova-provided accommodation is usually about ¥55,000 per month including up to ¥8,000 in utilities.
My husband works at Nova and teaches French. He is inrolled in the employees' health insurance system called "shakaihoken" because I made a phone call and claimed so. Other normal Japanese companies proceed this process without any request from their employee or his or her family. Now Nova corporation does not take anybody who works 40 hours per week, which means they only provide only a private insurance based in New Zealand, the legality of which is not obvious. If you want to be in some health insurance system, you can be involved the National health insurance system.
At first, my husband wass enrolled in the National health insurance system and paid 5,000yen per month or so. It is relatively cheap compared with Employees' Health Insurance System Premiums. BUT next fiscal year, which start in April, the premiums went up to 50,000 yen per month!! I am enrolled in the Enployees' Health Insurance and we didn't have any child. So he needed to pay the maxmum premium in that year. Then I started wondering if this is happening to all foreigners? After I studied a bit about Health Insurance System in Japan, if an employee works more than 40 hours per month, company needs to put their employees into the Employees' Health Insurance system. As you might imagine, I picked up a phone and called Nova and demand on putting him into EHI system immediately. At that time, which is 5 years ago, a lot of English teachin schools in Japan had cases under trials. Now Nova learned things from this experience and they take people only working less than 37 hours per week. There are a lot of people who thinks they are covered by private health insurance. BUT actually when they get injured, most of the cases are not covered including breaking bones and giving birth. Pre-existing desease are also usually dismissed by the private covers.
When you are enrolled in EHI system, you will be enrolled in Employees' Pension Insurance system which company will pay the half of the premium. When you go back to your home country, you will get Lump-sum Withdrawal Payments according to number of month of your coverage under the EPI system.
This is not only the situation for Nova teachers but also other teachers teaching at English teaching schools in Japan.
Recent Comments