Day: November 5, 2026

Has living in Japan inspired you to further your Japanese education? Check out these helpful links. Many of these resources are free or at least have a free trial. This post is only meant to inform you of Japanese study resources available. Please do not feel compelled to buy anything just because it was mentioned here. There are plenty of free resources to learn Japanese.

JET Programme Resources

Japanese Language Courses (Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced) are free Japanese courses available for JETs. Similarly, the JET Programme offers an online Translation and Interpretation course (application in August) and an in-person one available to people who have completed the online course. (The link is currently unavailable on the JET Programme website. Please check it out when the website is back up.)

AJET has a Studying Japanese page full of resources. Did you know that a JET alumni made a Japanese language learning comic called Crystal Hunters Manga? This is one of the great resources that can be found on the AJET webpage.

Non-JET Resources

Tofugu and WaniKani

Tofugu is a Japanese culture and language blog. They regularly post things like the Best Hiragana and Katakana Learning Resources or the Best Kanji Learning Programs where they review popular Japanese studying resources. In the Best Kanji Learning Programs blog post, you can find a description of Tofugu’s own Kanji learning program called WaniKani. WaniKani is expensive, however, the first three levels are free. Their one-year and lifetime memberships go on sale once a year in December. There is also a very active WaniKani Community forum which can make self-studying less daunting.

In Kuma sensei’s Japanese Study Resources webpage there is a list of YouTube channels for studying Japanese. Japanese with Yuka is a YouTube channel that specifically focuses on JLPT prep. There are many Japanese teachers like Yuka sensei who post free lessons on YouTube.

As for reading, Tadoku is a website with free Japanese graded readers. There is also a website called Todaii Japanese where you can read Japanese news articles and do JLPT reading practice. You can toggle furigana on and off while you are reading, listen to the article while you read, and even see a summary of grammar points used in the article. After reading, you can also take a short reading comprehension quiz. If you use the free version, you can read up to three articles a day.

Japan International Cooperation Center (JICE) has free (online and in-person) Japanese for Work courses for foreign residents. If you want to speak with your coworkers in Japanese, plan to work in Japan after JET, or self-studying is just not working for you, I recommend this class. Even in the online class (which is conducted over Zoom) you will have classmates and a teacher. Participants will study workplace Japanese, do a mock job interview in Japanese, and write a Japanese resume. This class is extremely high quality. It is kind of unbelievable that it is free.

So, you will be retiring from the JET Programme! What’s next? Below are some resources to help you start job hunting. Most (but not all) of these resources are for people who want to work in Japan.

JET Programme Resources

For starters, as a JET, you should take advantage of the JET Programme’s Career Vision Conference and Job Hunting Webinar in November. You will hear presentations from former JETs in many different industries located all over the world. The JET Programme also has two, in-person job fairs every year. These job fairs host companies that are eager to hire JETs. (The JET Programme Website is temporarily down, so information about the job fairs is currently unavailable. Check it out when the webpage is back up!)

Non-JET Resources

Japan Teaching Jobs has a number of jobs all over Japan and the website is extremely easy to use. I would like to point out jobs posted by The Japan Association of College English Teachers and the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT) because they have many positions available. JALT also posts their Job Listings on their own website.

Hello Work is similar to the unemployment office in your home country. They have a job search engine and you can even go to Hello Work in-person to get help from workers there. All government positions (like direct hire ALT or CIR positions) would be posted here. Unfortunately, Hello Work locations in Okinawa do not have foreign language assistance. Also, the job search engine is in Japanese.

On ALT Direct, you can see BOEs that are known for hiring ALT directly (rather than through the JET Programme or a dispatch company). If a BOE is hiring, they will also post the link to their website.

Gaijin Pot has an extensive job search engine. Gaijin Pot also hires freelance writers.

Finding jobs in Okinawa may be tough, but OIST and Okinawa International School may have some positions you are interested in.

A former JET has provided her advice about job hunting in a blog. This post includes an extensive list of job hunting websites.

Some other job sites include:

Ninja (Next in Japan)

Nippon 仕事

Daijob

はたらいく

Career Cross

AJET has a useful article called  Career Resources from Brett Huestis at Nisshin Global. You can find interview tips, how to write a resume, and more on this page.

Finally, the Japan International Cooperation Center (JICE) in collaboration with Hello Work offers free Japanese for Work courses (in person and online) for foreign residents. In addition to learning workplace Japanese, you will receive instruction on job hunting in Japan, Japanese job interviews, and how to write a Japanese resume.

Higher Education

The Gifu JET website is a great resource for those considering going back to school after JET. National AJET also has a list of partner universities in the USA.