JET Program marks 20 years
The Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program has now entered its 20th year. To mark the milestone, a commemorative ceremony, attended by Crown Prince Naruhito, was held at a Tokyo hotel on Nov. 22.
Sir Graham Holbrook Fry, British ambassador to Japan, made a commemorative address, stressing the importance of mutual understanding among nations. He said one way to break down barriers was to let young people experience other cultures.
"The time to influence people's attitudes and break down prejudices, is when they are young and still especially open to new experience," he said. "In that sense, the JET Program is particularly significant, because it brings together Japanese children and young people from other countries."
The ambassador said he had personal reasons to be grateful to the JET Program, because "many of the British staff at the embassy in Tokyo and our consulate general in Osaka are former JETs" and "my elder son was a teaching assistant in Saitama under the JET Program for two years, and thoroughly enjoyed it."
In its first year, the program brought over 848 native speakers of English from four countries. This year, it featured 5,508 people from 44 countries, and more than 46,000 people from 55 countries have now participated in the JET Program since its inception. It has developed into one of the world's largest exchange programs, promoting international exchanges and contributing to foreign language education in Japan's secondary schools.
The JET Program offers three kinds of jobs--assistant language teacher (ALT), coordinator for international relations (CIR) and sports exchange advisor (SEA)--although the majority of participants are working as ALTs.
Over the past 20 years, foreign language education has remained one of the most important roles in the JET Program. It will likely become more important following discussions of English education at the primary school level in the Central Council for Education.
Actual situations and problems in the JET Program were explored in a panel discussion moderated by Kazuya Matsumoto, an NHK announcer who appears on the weekly English talk entertainment show Eigo de Shabera-Night.
The panelists were: Agnes Chan, a singer and who holds a doctorate in education; Yuko Naoyama, a supervisor on the Kyoto City Board of Education; Kishin Fujii, deputy governor of Tottori Prefecture; Raymond Greene, chief of political-military affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Japan; and Takeshi Tanaka, secretary general of the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR), which hosts the JET Program together with the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, the Foreign Ministry and the Education, Science and Technology Ministry.
Under the theme of "Striving Toward Greater Internationalization: The 20 Year Journey of the JET Program and Its New Horizons," the panelists discussed various aspects of the JET Program, also showing videos depicting the activities of current and past participants in the program.
Chan said that the program contributed a lot to internationalizing local communities and to peace education. "I don't think ALTs can have instant effects on Japan's foreign language education. The time when ALTs were used as human tape recorders has passed," she said. "I'm sure Japanese teachers can get some hints in teaching students through ALTs and their existence might have shown the weak points and problems of Japan's English education. It's time we utilized the know-how that has been accumulated over the past 20 years."
Naoyama, who taught English at middle schools in Kyoto and had a lot of experience of team-teaching with ALTs, said: "It's we Japanese teachers' responsibility to create effective lesson plans in teaching students with ALTs. The mere existence of ALTs doesn't heighten students' English ability." Naoyama, who also holds seminars for primary school teachers on teaching English to children, said ALTs could have a very positive influence on children, helping them to understand things international and universal. "Children can study their own culture by listening to the direct voices from ALTs from other countries," she said.
From the administrative viewpoint, Fujii said the JET Program had been contributing a great deal to local communities. Fujii, whose job includes promoting international understanding activities, said that 18 CIRs were currently working in Tottori Prefecture as well as 60 ALTs, including two South Koreans and one Chinese. "In our prefecture, the number of foreign residents has doubled in the past 10 years. They have blended in well with local communities," he said. Formerly the head of the prefectural board of education, Fujii added that one of the merits of the JET Program was its solid support by local governments.
"When I was a student, there was no ALT and it was rare to meet foreigners in town," Fujii said. "But Japanese people in their 30s now have the experience of studying with ALTs in schools. I think the style of team-teaching will change, as younger teachers have actually experienced team-teaching as students."
Greene, who participated in the JET Program as an ALT, teaching English at a high school in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1992-93, said that the JET Program was successful in promoting international exchanges. "I think participants of the program are good diplomats for promoting Japan. The program is really promoting grassroots international exchanges. I was happy to have participated in the program," he said.
Tanaka, who is in the position of promoting the JET Program, said the program has been supported by many people not only in Japan but also overseas, including former JET Program participants and foreign universities. "More than 5,500 participants are working in 1,208 local municipalities throughout the country this year. We hope we can develop the program further," he said.
During the panel discussion, moderator Matsumoto introduced some responses to survey questionnaires by current participants in the program. one CIR complained that although he was hired as a CIR, what he actually did was teaching English or doing translation. Another participant hoped to get a proper performance evaluation, rather than remaining stuck at the same pay for years.
Today, some local governments are facing financial difficulties that lead to municipal mergers. The declining birthrate and shrinking school-age population may also affect the program. "I think local municipalities that are accepting JET Program participants need to give them proper opportunities so that they can take active roles in their community in a wider range of fields," Fujii said.