There are an estimated 30,000 people teaching English in Japan, including those on the government's widely recognized JET program. But with the craze for language learning fading fast, the English conversation industry is facing a crisis and many teachers, fearing for their livelihoods, are taking courses and getting qualifications that they hope will help them secure their jobs.
One organization that offers English-language educators a chance to hone their professional skills is English Teachers in Japan, which boasts 7,000 registered members, half of them Japanese. ETJ holds regular one-day seminars offering a "Certificate in Teaching Japanese Students," one of which took place in Fukuoka earlier this month.
Seminar leader David Paul, who established the David English House in an apartment in Hiroshima in 1982 and has overseen its development into a respected center for English-language education, said that although attaining the certificate "is not going to immediately get someone a job, it is a sign that they're taking their job seriously."