How much do teachers in Japan earn?

Last checked: 2026-11-06

Public school teachers in Japan averaged about 322,000 to 353,000 yen a month in base pay on October 1, 2022, according to MEXT's School Teachers Survey. New teachers in April 2026 start lower, at about 265,400 yen a month with a bachelor's degree. These are figures for licensed teachers in Japan's school system. They are not English conversation or ALT pay.

Average monthly pay by school type

These are national averages for full-time teachers. The survey runs every three years, and this is the latest salary data we could read.

School type	Average monthly pay	Average years of service	Average lessons a week
Public elementary	322,300 yen	16.2	18.2
Public junior high	332,000 yen	16.9	14.5
Public high school	353,200 yen	19.7	13.6
Private high school	355,300 yen	15.4	13.3

Figures are for October 1, 2022. The survey item is monthly salary (給料月額), shown in thousands of yen. Treat it as base pay. Do not multiply it by 12 to get yearly pay, because the tables do not show bonuses or allowances. The tables do not show English teachers on their own.

Pay differs by prefecture

These are the highest and lowest prefecture averages for public schools in the same tables. Average years of service differ by prefecture too, so a higher number does not simply mean a better-paid job.

Public school type	Lowest	Highest	Tokyo
Elementary	301,500 yen (Kanagawa)	358,500 yen (Aomori)	314,300 yen
Junior high	310,000 yen (Osaka)	362,900 yen (Fukushima)	313,800 yen
High school	322,900 yen (Kanagawa)	388,400 yen (Niigata)	336,400 yen

Starting pay in April 2026

MEXT's June 2026 leaflet shows these national average levels for new teachers.

	Bachelor's degree	Graduate degree
Monthly salary	265,400 yen	281,800 yen
Teaching adjustment allowance	13,270 yen	14,090 yen
Monthly total	278,670 yen	295,890 yen
Yearly total, with term-end and diligence allowances	4,647,818 yen	4,935,023 yen

MEXT uses a 5 percent adjustment rate for this table, and it leaves out some other allowances. The same leaflet says the rate will rise from 4 percent to 10 percent, by 1 percent each year from fiscal 2026 to 2031. Another MEXT paper we saw in a search excerpt says the 5 to 6 percent step starts in January 2027, so the timing may differ by step.

How this compares with JET

JET pays about 4,020,000 yen before tax in year 1. By our own calculation, MEXT's yearly figure for a new bachelor's-level teacher is about 627,800 yen higher. The comparison is rough:

The groups differ. MEXT's figure is for a teacher in the system, and it requires a Japanese teaching license. MEXT says you cannot teach a class in a Japanese school without one, and a license from abroad does not simply carry over.
The years differ. The teacher figure is for April 2026, and JET is for the 2027 application year.
The work differs. JET's ALT role assists classes, and your duties and hours are in your contract.

So you should not read these numbers as a pay offer open to you. See JET pay and visa routes for the jobs most readers of this site are planning for.

What about eikaiwa and dispatch company pay?

This survey does not cover them, so we give no figure. Check the written offer from the employer.

Figures for JET apply to the 2027 application year.

How we checked: we opened MEXT's notice and leaflet and the three e-Stat tables directly, and read the figures from the tables. MEXT published a 2025 interim report in July 2026. A search excerpt says final results are planned for March 2027. We did not confirm whether the interim report has salary data, so this page uses 2022. JET pay here was read from the 2027 guidelines on November 6, 2026, and JET Program USA's contract page lists the same pay.