Filipino ALTs in Japan

We have initiated a research about Filipino ALTs in Japan, together with Benjamin San Jose, a former Sociology major at UP in Diliman who is now a Phd student at the University of Tsukuba.

The term ALT or gaikokugo shido joshu or "foreign language instruction assistant" refers to English language speakers employed to assist Japanese teachers to teach English to Japanese elementary and high school students. ALTs are also referred to as AETs (Assistant English teachers).

The hiring of ALTs started through the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme (JET) which aimed to promote internationalisation or kokusaika (???H??) throughout Japan's local communities through improved foreign language education and international exchange at the community level (CLAIR 2009).

Implemented in 1987 with the purpose of increasing mutual understanding between the people of Japan and the people of other nations, the JET programme involved the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), with the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR) as administrative body. Recruited mostly from the US and three other countries (United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand), the pioneer ALTs were sent to various schools throughout Japan and with their Japanese counterparts, were assigned to teach English in public elementary, junior and senior high schools.

As of 1998, 34 countries (including the Philippines) and over 40,000 foreign participants (including Filipinos) were reported to have been involved with the JET programme.

While the merits of the JET programme have been acknowledged, the recent decade saw criticisms of the programme, raised especially by the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, that have targeted 1) the huge budget of ¥1 billion proposed for the programme to pay for airfare, orientation costs, and counseling services; and 2) the practice of CLAIR of accepting and giving plush jobs to retiring senior bureaucrats which is termed as Amakuri or descent from heaven.

Despite these criticisms, the JET programme as well as the demand for ALTs is expected to proceed as Japan continues to see the need to learn English to be globally competitive as well as for fostering better understanding through the continuation of internationalism. Aside from English being part of the present curriculum in the elementary schools under the elective "International Understanding" and as a compulsory subject in junior high school, the policy to have English education mandatory for fifth graders starting 2011 is expected to increase the demand for ALTs.

Data provided by the MEXT confirm that many local governments (which in the past have paid for the recruitment and salaries of ALTs hired through the JET programme) have shifted to cheaper private outsource companies.

Filipino ALTs have been among these non-JET ALTs recruited by private companies. Although mentioned as those among the other nationalities hired to teach English in Japan as Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) in 1998, the surge in the number of Filipino ALTs was observed only from early 2000s.

From hereon, we hope we can gather substantial data about the Filipino ALTs, who they are, what they do as ALTs, and the challenges as well as impacts of being ALTs for the Filipinos. We also hope that the research will contribute to a wider and more complete understanding of the present situation of Filipinos in Japan and their role in the promotion of multiculturalism in Japan.

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