31 Teach English Online to Japanese Sites That PAY WELL!

Do you want to know more about how to teach English online to Japanese?

According to the Japanese Times, the Japanese have trouble learning English. This stems from many reasons such as:

too much classroom emphasis on grammar with very little time devoted to actual conversational practice
a focus on learning English to pass exams which means students copy out what is written on the blackboard and memorize it in preparation for tests
the Japanese ‘shame culture’ where Japanese people have an intense fear of making mistakes or being embarrassed in public, so they don’t speak up in class when they don’t understand.

As a result, many Japanese students who want to study or work abroad need additional training to get their English language skills up to scratch.

This means that there is a HUGE demand for teachers to teach English online to Japanese students.

Over my time as an online English teacher, I have taught quite a few Japanese students and can confirm that they are a great joy to teach!

Japanese students are hardworking, polite, attentive and they place a high level of respect for their teachers. Read on if you want to know where to teach English to Japanese online.

DISCLAIMER

There may be links to products and services recommended on here that are affiliate links and I may earn if you click on them, AT NO EXTRA cost to you. Hope you find the information here useful! Thanks.

The Best Online Platforms to Teach English to Japanese Students

1. Cafetalk

Café Talk pays between $10 to $25 (you set your own rates and there is a minimum and maximum you can charge). If the students like your profile they will book a lesson with you.

This is one of the best platforms for teaching English to adults in Japan as a majority of the students are adults who want to learn Business English and you need to have a Bachelor’s degree to get started.

2. English Everywhere

English Everywhere allows you to set your own availability and hours. You are paid around $7 per 30-minute class, but this increases to once you have completed 10 classes.

You need some teaching experience and a TEFL to get started.

3. Eigox

Eigox pays around $10 an hour to teach English Japan but it’s easy to join.

They have three types of lessons: free talk, textbook-based learning, and online material-based lessons, but most of the students are looking for conversational English classes.

4. E Communication

E-Communication is a platform that offers online teaching jobs in Japan. It pays around $20 an hour but you need to commit to at least 20 teaching hours a week.

Their requirements to join are quite high, you need to have teaching experience, native English proficiency, business experience, and an ability to speak Japanese.

5. Mainichi Eikaiwa

Mainichi Eikaiwa pays around $14 per 50-minute English lessons for Japanese speakers. They only hire native speakers with teaching experience and a degree.

They also ask you to commit to at least 5 hours a day, 3 hours a week.

6. English Hunt

English Hunt pay up to $14 per hour for teaching English to Japanese students online and teachers must have a degree and either four years’ experience or a teaching certificate.

7. Eigo power

Eigo Power doesn’t pay very well ( $5 – $12 per hour), but they have low barriers to entry to teach English to Japanese students online. They also accept non-native speakers who have good proficiency in English.

8. Italki

With italki you can set your own rates and hours for teaching Japanese students English online. It is harder to join, but there are more students on there so you will get more bookings if they accept you.

9. Preply

I really like Preply and I use them myself for teaching English online Japan.

I have found plenty of Japanese students looking to learn English on there. I set my own rates and hours and had no shortage of students.

Note– Preply will take a commission of 33% for the first few classes which reduce to 15% as you teach more

10. Verbling

Verbling is similar to Preply, where you set your own hours and rates for teaching English in Japan online. They also take less of a commission. They provide a teaching platform for you to teach on.

11. Lyngo

Lyngo is one of the many online English schools in Japan.

They pay around $10 and preference will be given to candidates who can teach Japanese students English online between 8:00 pm and midnight Japanese Standard Time(JST) and the weekends.

They hire both native and non-native teachers with no experience

12. Best Teacher

Best Teacher doesn’t pay well ($5-$6 per hour) but they hire non-natives and the barriers to entry are low to teach English in Japan online. You can also get paid to reply to message and edit conversations.

13. Eigoru

Eigoru hires both Filipino and native English speakers with or without experience. The pay is low ($3- $10 per hour) but you can teach English online Japan between 9 am to 9 pm Japanese Standard Time.

14. S-Lessons

S-Lessons allow you to decide on your pay but they take 30% and you need at least 1-year teaching experience. Each lesson is 22 minutes long.

15. English Tutor Online

English Tutor Online hire native English teachers from North America and the UK. You need to have a degree and at least five years of teaching experience. They pay between $12-$18 an hour.

16. Rare Job

Rare Job mainly hires ESL teachers from the Philippines. They pay $3 to $5/hour. And you must be living in the Philippines. If you want to teach English online to Japanese from the Philippines, this is perfect for you.

17. Cena Academy

Cena Academy only hires native speakers from the USA. They prefer that you have a Bachelor’s Degree, a TESOL/TESL, and prior experience teaching English. They pay $9 per 25 minutes and $18 for 50 minutes.

18. SkimaTalk

SkimaTalk hires native speakers and prefer experienced online English teacher for Japanese. Each session on SkimaTalk is for 25 minutes.

You can set your own rates but SkimaTalk takes 20% of each lesson’s price.

19. Engoo

Engoo is another online English teaching site where students can take 1 on 1 sessions with the tutors. Each session is for 25 minutes.

They hire both native and non-native speakers but prefer teachers with a TEFL certification. The pay is between $2 – $12 per hour.

20. Lingoda

To teach on Lingoda, you must be a native speaker or have a C-2 level proficiency in your target language. They prefer teachers with 2-3 years of experience and a TEFL/TESOL certificate.

You can teach in groups or take private lessons on Lingoda. They pay anywhere from $8 – $15 per hour.

21. One Coin English

One Coin English hires both native and non native speakers for online and in-person lessons. However, even for their online English teaching jobs in Japan, you need to live in Japan.

TEFL certificate is a requirement. They pay $8 – $11 for a 50 minutes session.

22. Classgap

You can register directly as a tutor, fill in the details, and set your own rates on Classgap. For every booking, Classgap will charge a 10% of the fee amount from the tutor.

You can take the lessons remotely from anywhere.

23. LingQ

You need to be a native speaker to start teaching English Japanese online on LingQ. LingQ has a points based payment system.

You can set your rates but please note that 15% of the payment is taken as commission by LingQ.

They have one-on-one lessons for online teaching English in Japan, which you can take for 30, 45, 60 or 90 minutes.

24. LearnLight

Learnlight hires teachers with any foreign language teaching certification and at least 2 years of teaching experience. They prefer people with business backgrounds to tutor Japanese students online.

The pay is between $7 – $14 per hour and they require you to teach for a minimum of 10 hours per week for Japanese online English teaching jobs.

25. EF Teach Online

EF Teach Online is another great avenue for you to teach Japanese students online. You need to have C-2 level proficiency, be TEFL certified, and have a bachelor’s degree. They hire both natives and non-natives.

You can take lessons at any time of the day, as group classes or one-on-one sessions. You can earn anywhere from $18 – $35 per hour.

26. Cambly

Anyone can be a teacher on Cambly. You don’t need to have a language certificate or a specific degree. Cambly is a chat-based platform and you converse with people to help them learn the language.

The pay is between $10 – $12 per hour and no minimum hours.

27. Berlitz

To teach on Berlitz you must have a bachelor’s degree or an equivalent. You need to be a native or near-native speaker. Teaching experience is not a must.

The pay is between $8 – $20 and they prefer teachers who can work for 15-20 hours per week.

28. Tutorme

Tutorme is another platform where you can register and start TEFL teaching Japan. You need to be a graduate, have a minimum of 2 years of teaching/tutoring experience, and be a master of your target subject.

They pay $16 per hour and don’t have specified peak hours. Tutorme has an acceptance rate of 4% for teachers.

29. Novakid

Novakid hires both native and non-native fluent English speakers as ESL teacher Japan but you need to have a degree, a TEFL/CELTA/TESOL certificate, and 2+ years of teaching experience.

They pay around $16 per hour to native speakers and around $6 – $7 per hour for non-native speakers. They also require you to work for a minimum of 20 hours per week.

30. Voxy

Voxy is an English learning platform mainly focused on corporate professionals and university students.

They hire native and non-native speakers with an English teaching certification and at least 3 years of teaching experience.

They pay around $15 – $18 per hour with a minimum of 10 hours per week commitment.

31. Protostar Education

Protostar hires only native speakers, with at least 1 year of classroom teaching experience and a TEFL/TESOL certificate.

They have a decent pay between $16 – $35 per hour. They hire on a contractual basis for a minimum of one year.

Note- don’t be afraid to find your own private students using FB ads or by posting your services on Facebook groups.

That way, when people search for ‘ Online English tutor for Japanese’ your name will come up.

Note 2 – A really good resource to find jobs to teach English to Japanese students is here.

Teach English Online to Japanese- Common Language Problems Faced

From my personal experience teaching students from all over the world, it is clear that students from different countries face different language challenges.

If you are looking to teach online English lessons in Japan, it’s important to be aware of these.

My Japanese students faced a few of the English language challenges below:

A lack of conversational skills

The education system in Japan places a huge emphasis on preparing Japanese students to pass exams. This means when they learn English, they focus on exam questions, grammar, and textbook knowledge and but have little to no conversational skills.

The best thing you can do when you teach English online to Japanese students is to focus on conversational English.

Pronunciation

My Japanese students often had difficulties with making a distinction between l and r.

So they would sometimes mix up the letters in a word. So remove would become ‘lemove’, report would become ‘leport’.

To fix this, I normally showed them how my mouth moved and where my tongue was placed in my mouth when I pronounced this word.

Grammar

My Japanese students faced problems with English grammar. The reason for this is English grammar is entirely different from the Japanese one.

In the Japanese language, the consonant sounds come at the beginning of their syllables with a vowel after. So every sound ends in a vowel, except for the one- ‘n’ sound.

This makes it difficult for them to learn a language that has consonants at the end of words. So for example, my Japanese students would say ‘longo’ instead of ‘long’ and ‘coldo’ instead of cold.

These can be improved by first making the student aware that the vowel needs to be dropped and then practice words and sentences a few times with them dropping the vowels

Speaking opening and directly

My Japanese students are really shy and at the beginning, they don’t speak much in class.

This is because the Japanese culture focuses on avoiding any embarrassment that comes with making a mistake, so they don’t speak at all.

But if you don’t make mistakes you don’t learn!

Make sure you also check their understanding of a topic because its normal for a Japanese student to say yes, to avoid confrontation or so they aren’t seen as being rude or disruptive.

Also, they won’t tell you if they are uncomfortable about a topic, so you need to observe their body language closely.

If they are smiling and open, they are ok, but if you notice them looking down, check if the topic makes them feel uncomfortable

I made the mistake of talking about love and affection in one of my classes and my student looked extremely uncomfortable, so I moved on to talk about art and they opened up immediately.

Watch your thumbs

In japan, pointing your thumbs down means “go to hell”, so please don’t use this! But thumbs up is fine.

Teaching English to Japanese Students- Some tips on How to Succeed

Learn about the Japanese culture
Focus on their career
Prepare your classes
Focus on conversational skills

Learn about the Japanese culture

When you are on your journey to discover how to teach English online to Japanese students, learning about the Japanese culture will help you so much!

The Japanese are proud of their rich culture and history. It is a great conversation topic which the student will feel comfortable speaking about.

Focus on their career

Most of my Japanese students study English to improve their career prospects or to study or work abroad. They are extremely career-driven.

Before you begin a class with a new student, check their current job, aspirations and the work they intend to secure, and tailor your class accordingly.

Prepare your classes

Japanese students are hardworking, diligent, and will expect to get real value from their lessons. They are also perfectionists.

So, make sure you take the time to prepare some topics beforehand and plan a good lesson.

Focus on conversational skills

As mentioned above, Japanese students don’t really get the chance to practice their conversational skills in school as its exam and grammar-focused.

So, prepare English conversation topics like family, sports, travel, and food, and you will dramatically enhance their language skills

I really enjoy being an English tutor for Japanese students. It gave me the freedom to explore the world while working from my laptop and teach students who value me as a teacher.

If you know where to look. There are plenty of home based English online tutor for Japanese jobs available. Japanese students are a pleasure to teach and the pay is decent.

Benefits of Teaching English Online to Japanese Students

You can teach in various parts of the world your laptop
The pay can be decent, I earned more than $20 an hour
The Japanese culture is colorful and steeped in a rich history
Japanese students are polite, attentive, respectful and humble
Japanese students are conscientious, so they always pay on time (well mine did anyway)
I worked flexible hours according to my schedule

How do I get started if I want to teach English online to Japanese students?

You just need the following if you want to know how to teach English to Japanese students:

Have a 120 hour Teaching English as a Foreign Language ‘TEFL’ certificate
A good internet connection
Have a headset* and a laptop
At least a good proficiency with the English language.

*Nice to have, but I just used my Apple earphones

2- A ‘TEFL – ‘Teaching English as a Foreign Language certificate

This is MANDATORY. If you want to teach English online to Japanese students, the ONLY way an online school in Japan or abroad is is going to hire you is if you have some form of teaching certificate/ qualification.

Nevertheless, you can get one online for a reasonable price.

There is a 120-hour online course ran by Let’s TEFL which trains you to teach English as a foreign language but it also has specific training on online teaching/

The great thing about this TEFL compared to other providers:

It also prepares you to teach English as a second language.
It also prepares you to teach English online.

As far as I’m aware, Let’s TEFL is the only course available online now which comes with a whole extra video module with specific training for teaching online – presented by an actual teacher.

Note- I have taken the course myself.

Home Based Online English Tutor for Japanese- How to Increase Your Rate

A really great way of increasing your rate if you are looking for private students is to :

Offer to teach English ALONG WITH A SKILL.

For example, I niched down to become an English IELTS Specialist and Business English Tutor

Why?

Because when you teach English with a skill, you are essentially fixing a specific problem for the student using the English language, so the student pays you more for the privilege of learning how to fix it.

Think about it like a doctor and a surgeon. You go to a doctor to fix a general issue but a surgeon to fix a specialized issue, which you pay more for.

You could also offer to teach:

English + Pronunciation specific lessons on accent modification
English + TEOFL/SATS/ TOEIC /IELTS
English + Presentation skills
English vocabulary + conversation skills
English + Business skills

I actually know a teacher who taught English + dating skills and does very very well as his students want to learn how to communicate with the opposite gender in English when they travel abroad.

How to become an IELTS Specialist:

If you want to become an IELTS Teacher, take the Teaching IELTS 30 Hour Online course. It trains you on how to become an online IELTS teacher, so you can charge a higher rate for English lessons for Japanese students.

How to become a Business English Teacher

The Teaching Business English 30 Hour Online Course will train you to become a Business English teacher.

Also, use any work experience you have working for a company to help you with lesson plans and to give you ideas of practical examples for your Japanese students.

Once I up-skilled and became an IELTS specialist and Business English, my rate went from $15 per hour to about $40-$65 per hour.

What Is The Age Limit For TEFL Teachers In Japan?

Wondering about the age limit for tefl teachers in Japan?

Although there is no age limit for TEFL teachers in Japan, most institutions and schools tend to hire teachers over the age of 20 and under the age of 50.

In Japan, the retirement age of 60 may be a consideration for hiring TEFL teachers.

Is It Worth Teaching English Online In Japan?

If you’re wondering about whether it’s worth teaching English online in Japan, it’s absolutely worth it! Japan has a considerable demand for English teachers and they are highly regarded.

They receive several benefits in addition to a generous pay. Teachers can also set their own hours and rates if they’re teaching online.

Can I Teach English In Japan With CELTA?

Can I teach English in Japan with CELTA? Yes, you definitely can!

Most higher level English lessons in universities require CELTA-certified professors with a master’s degree. Teachers with a CELTA also earn more than other ESL tutors.

CELTA is highly regarded around the world, and you can teach anywhere if you have a CELTA certification.

Do You Need To Speak Japanese To Teach English In Japan?

Wondering whether you need to speak Japanese to teach English in Japan?

You don’t necessarily have to learn or speak Japanese to teach English online in Japan. You can decide to learn Japanese if you want, and many companies or schools also provide free Japanese training.

How Much To Charge For Private English Lessons In Japan?

How much to charge for private English lessons in Japan?

Tutors can charge anywhere from ¥2500 – ¥3500 ($18 – $26) per hour for taking private English lessons in Japan. You have complete control over your session pricing and teaching hours.

It is entirely up to you how many pupils you want to individually tutor.

How Much Can You Make Teaching English Online?

Wondering about how much you can make teaching English online? Most companies allow you to set your rates and you can charge anything from $10 – $45 per hour for teaching English.

Some companies have fixed rates for teachers depending on their experience level but allow incentives based on performance.

How Hard Is English For Japanese Speakers?

How hard is English for Japanese speakers? Due to phonetic differences, Japanese speakers have difficulty pronouncing some English vowel and consonant sounds such as l, r, and th.

There is a significant difference in the grammar. Word stress is different, and they have difficulty speaking with articles because Japanese does not have them.

How To Teach ESL Online?

Wondering how to teach ESL online? Most companies hire native speakers with a TEFL/TESOL/CELTA certificate. You also need a stable internet connection and a Skype/Zoom account for taking lessons.

Some ESL companies prefer experienced teachers with a bachelor’s degree who can commit to teaching during peak hours.

What Should I Wear When Teaching English Online In Japan?

Wondering what to wear when teaching English online in Japan? Business professional and business casual attire is considered appropriate for ESL teachers in Japan.

The dress code in Japan is more conservative than in the western world.

Teach English Online to Japanese- Are You Still Unsure?

From time to time I receive messages from teachers who prefer a bit more training or have specific areas they need training so they can increase their rate quickly.

If you need specific training to find private students and increase your rate and, get in touch.

Note- try the free option first and read the free articles on my blog to save money 

Those are just a few ideas if you are interested to teach English online to Japanese students.

Earning more meant I could work less and adventure on my motorbike around the world.

Ps; If you like adventure travel, let’s connect on Instagram! I want to see your pictures 🙂