Importing Diversity: Inside Japan's JET Program (14 page)

a. Personality (40 points-same in both CIR and ALT)

Consider flexibility, strength of personality, ability to adapt to foreign
cultures, etc.

b. Ability (20 points-same in both CIR and ALT)

Consider self-expression, creativity, general knowledge.

c. Motivation (CIR-2o points, ALT-25 points)

Consider desire to participate in JET Program, sense of purpose, interest in Japan.

d. English ability (io points-same in both CIR and ALT)

Clear pronunciation, proper word use, etc.

e. Japanese ability (CIR-io points, ALT-5 points)

Applicants for the CIR position must have a functional ability in Japanese, an ability not only to speak and understand well but ideally to
read and write as well. For applicants for the ALT position, evaluate
conversation and reading ability.

f. Overall impression (20 points-same in both CIR and ALT)

Please recommend those applicants who seem sociable, stable and can
adjust well to new situations.

While the JET Program as a whole has been well received in the United
States by Japan scholars in all disciplines (after all, it provides a wonderful
opportunity for one's own students to live and work in Japan), the tendency to emphasize youth and personality in the selection of participants
has not gone uncriticized. What struck me about the way the interviews
were set up was not only the preoccupation with social fit and social type
but also the relatively short time we were given to make difficult assessments about character-integrity, adaptability, openness to learning, genuine interest in children.38 One professor on the selection committee at the
University of Washington told me that she was fed up with the whole process: "All they do is choose people who are cute and cheery instead of those
with teaching experience or sustained interest in Japan." Cliff Clarke, who
coordinated the selection of participants for CIEE under the old MEF Program, was especially critical of how the Ministry of Foreign Affairs handled the selection process after taking over from CIEE:

In the early years of the MEF Program, they only wanted single males
under the age of twenty-six, and no one but Caucasians. We fought all
of these one at a time because of lawsuits against CIEE. Also, there was
no predeparture training at first, and they didn't want people to come
knowing the Japanese language. The Japanese side was hoping for complete novices. But after a 5 to 6 percent failure rate, we convinced them
that we needed a more thorough selection and orientation process. By
1986 we had the selection process so fine-tuned that we could spot the
right American for the program in 30 seconds. Now [with the start-up
of JET] they've gone right back to square one. Gaimusho has refused
help from Mombusho, and they've created an application form that
asks for age, race, sex, marital status, the whole works.39

WHO ARE THE JET PARTICIPANTS?

In spite of the initial administrative delays and the criticism of some selection committee members, the JET Program in its inaugural year attracted
considerable interest in all four participating countries. As table 2 shows,
for ALTs the percentage of successful applicants in 1987 was below 3o percent in both the United States and the United Kingdom, and below 1o percent in Australia. In 1988 the percentage of successful applicants rose considerably in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New
Zealand, in part because of the increase in the numbers of new participants;
but it was still low for the two newcomers, Canada and Ireland.

A closer examination of the characteristics of participants chosen in 1987
reveals a number of interesting points. The large majority (93 percent) were
single, and there was a slightly higher percentage of females (56.5 percent)
than males (43.5 percent). The age of participants during the first year of the
program ranged from twenty-two to forty-three, with an average age of
twenty-five. Among ALTS, 35.6 percent of JET participants indicated they
had formal teaching experience, but it is hard to know what this means since
"teaching experience" was not defined. While 46.8 percent indicated they had
some Japanese language skills, this initial information was quite misleading
because JET participants were only given two options from which to choose
("some skills" or "no skills"). Yet even with this crude distinction, striking
differences between countries emerged. While 6o to 8o percent of Australian
and New Zealand participants indicated they had some Japanese language
ability, only 15 percent of British participants did, a reflection of the relative
lack of Japanese language programs in British high schools and universities.40

Later a more sophisticated attempt was made to categorize the characteristics of JET participants (see table 3). A five-tiered scale of language
ability was introduced, and the results indicate that on the whole, the JET participants are not very conversant in Japanese prior to arriving in Japan.
Thus in i99i fully 85 percent of new ALTs indicated that they could speak
no Japanese whatsoever or that they had trouble with daily conversation.
Only 1.3 percent said they could speak Japanese well enough to manage
their work duties.41 The same survey also revealed that 93.8 percent of
ALTs came to Japan with a bachelor's degree, while 6.-i percent came with
a master's. Just under 12 percent of ALTS had received some kind of TEFL
(teaching English as a foreign language) certification.

Ministry officials told me that they kept no statistics on the ethnic and
racial background of JET participants, and thus their observations are
speculative. They noted that requiring a B.A. or B.S. degree for participation in the program was bound to skew the demographics of participants,
as low-income and nonwhite youth are underrepresented in the population of college graduates in each of the participating countries. The
1987-88 JET Participant Directory (which includes both names and pictures) revealed that JETs of African descent comprised roughly 1.5 percent (io of 683) of the participants pictured.41 Judging from surnames,
JETs of Japanese descent comprised 5 percent (45 of 848) of JET participants. It would seem that the former tended to be underrepresented,
while the latter fared very well. There were few Hispanic participants, and
no participants from indigenous groups such as Native Americans, Maori,
or Australian Aborigines.

Motivation: Japan Meets Generation X

The motivations of current JET participants differ qualitatively from those
of the young people, including myself, who came to Japan in the 1970s.
Then we were more often than not lured by the image of the "exotic"-the
tea ceremony, Zen, martial arts, and Kabuki. The yen for Japan among
today's JET participants, however, is more likely to involve the other kind
of yen. Amply aware of Japan's economic success, some hope to cash in on
their Japan experience by working in international business. Almost all
participants (especially those who are saddled with student loans) find the
JET Program salary attractive.

Although JET participants represent a fairly narrow social slice, they
have a wide range of motivations for entering the program. Approximately
25 percent of those whom I interviewed did draw some connection between
Japan's economic rise, their participation in the JET Program, and a future
payoff. In some cases they were quite specific. For instance, one twentytwo-year-old American noted, "I really want to go to business school and work in international business, and if this is the case, my study of Japanese
and government should be useful." Others had only a vague notion that
exposure to the Japanese economic miracle would pay off in the future. The
comments of a twenty-four-year-old British participant demonstrate just
how powerful Japan's economic position was perceived to be in the late
i98os: "I wanted to travel east after finals, and I caught sight of this at the
career programs office. It seemed prestigious since it was run by the Japanese government. I thought if I could learn Japanese it would be beneficial
to my career since Japan will lead the world in the next century."

Roughly 20 percent of the participants I interviewed mentioned some
personal or family connection as the key force behind their interest in the
JET Program. This was overwhelmingly true for Japanese Americans. A
second-generation Japanese American recalled: "My father brought his
chef skills to the States where he is self-employed, and my mother imparted my love of Japanese language and culture to me." By contrast, a
fourth-generation Japanese American confessed that there was not much
of Japan left in her household other than her mother cooking rice with
hamburgers, but she still wanted to seek an understanding of Japanese culture in a way a tourist would not. Other participants had personal connections as well, ranging from a formative childhood experience such as
studying the violin under the Suzuki method to the curiosity aroused by
having a neighbor who was Japanese.

Another 15 percent expressed an academic interest in Japan. Many in
this group had studied Japanese language, culture, or history in college,
perhaps even venturing to Japan on an undergraduate exchange program.
Thirteen percent of the participants I interviewed had a deep interest in
teaching and ESL or had some experience in these fields. A roughly equal
number said their motivation to travel to Japan was simply a desire to see
a different part of the world. As one participant noted, "I had lived in Russia and the explorer side of me wanted to see a new place and experience a
different lifestyle." In the same vein, another explained: "Japan was always
a country I wanted to visit because of its combination of Eastern and Western influences. I was intrigued by diversity in the human race and wanted
knowledge of a setting different from home." Finally, 9 percent of my interviewees mentioned their fascination with traditional Japanese culture.
For many in this group, the martial arts, particularly membership in university aikido clubs, proved to be the impetus.43

At one end of the continuum, then, are those who come with what their
Japanese hosts disparagingly referred to as a superficial interest (karui kimochi). Possessing a tourist mentality, they are perfectly content to operate in English for the duration of their stay and tend to become very cynical
about the JET Program and Japanese education. At the other end are those
who practically reject their own cultural background in the rush to embrace
Japanese culture. Intent on going native, they may eschew interaction with
other foreigners, preferring instead to cultivate an all-Japanese social network. Usually their initial idealism becomes tempered over time, but they
still retain a critical stance toward their compatriots. The majority of JET
participants fall somewhere in the middle between these two extremes.
They view the JET Program as a chance to see the world and perhaps to take
time off from school before making decisions about career plans, all the
while harboring a vague expectation that the experience may prove valuable later down the line.

THE JET PROGRAM AS A il MEGAPOLICY"

Several themes are worth highlighting in the story of the origins of the JET
Program, for they continue to influence its implementation. First, there
were important antecedents for the idea itself. The Ministry of Home Affairs was embarking on a serious attempt to improve its overseas connections, prompted by the pace at which independent ties at local levels were
proliferating; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was committed to cultural
exchange as a foreign policy strategy for providing a human face to counter
the negative stereotypes of Japan circulating abroad; and the Ministry of
Education, which already was administering two smaller English education
programs, had committed itself (at least in principle) to improving foreign
language education and intercultural educational exchanges. Holding these
diverse threads together was a public discourse surrounding internationalization that stressed the need for Japan to emerge from cultural isolation
and assimilate a new set of values. The JET Program thus was not just window dressing, as some critics have charged, but an attempt to integrate a
relatively insular and homogeneous population with a global society made
increasingly important to Japan by its own economic progress.