Can I teach English in Japan at an older age (33)?

Question:

Not that 33 is ancient, but I know most people who go to teach in Japan are straight out of college.

If anyone really knows the exact criteria they are looking for in English teachers, I would love to hear more about it.

My concerns are my age (I know there's an informal limit of 40, but I feel that they might fill all the spots with 22 year olds first and turn me down) and my employment history which is spotty. I have had (and currently have) a period of near-unemployment... I make ~10,000 a year selling products on eBay which is enough to scrape by, but doesn't look impressive on a resume and doesn't leave me with any references.

I am a college graduate and took Japanese courses in high school and college and still study it occasionally. I'm far from fluent but can read kana and speak enough to get by. The typical things like "what time is it" "how much does this cost"... I guess slightly more than those basics actually but not enough for real conversations.

If anyone has information, advice, or knows of the best place for discussions about this please let me know. There seems to be information about JET spread all over Youtube and Facebook and blogs, but I haven't found a centralized place where I can ask questions to a forum full of people who would have the answers.

Thanks!

Answer:

There are native English speaking teachers of all ages in Japan.

Different schools and different positions have different qualifications.

There's no informal limit of 40, unless maybe you're thinking of the JET Programme. There are plenty of 40+'s teaching in Japan.

You're really looking at the negatives. Why? Everyone could do that, no matter what their circumstances are.

Resumes can be written in a way that comes across well. If you can't do it yourself, you can always pay someone to make your resume for you based on your info.

You already have more Japanese than a lot of people who start teaching English in Japan.

Most of the forums out there are just people talking trash. There are a lot of people who have resentment issues and with the language/cultural barrier take out their frustrations online.

Check out gaijinpot.com and ohayosensei.com for job postings.

Take requirements with a grain of salt too. If you think a job would be good, but don't have exactly what they're asking for, apply anyway. Some of those postings are just standard postings the companies have used for years. When things get tight at language schools, a teacher is a teacher. Anyway in Japan it's a lot more about your attitude than anything else. People don't want to deal with an over-qualified moron if they can have a good-natured person with some college level education who gets along with everyone.

In general a Bachelor degree is required for a work visa, but it's not set in stone at all.

A bunch of wimps left their jobs after the tsunami, so Japan wants good teachers now all over the place. Once you're in, you're in. You wouldn't believe some of the absolute losers that get jobs in Japan. Believe me, you can do it.