JET Program Departure Update

I received an email today from the consulate regarding departure updates for the 2020 cohort. As it turns out, I will not be moving to Japan in two months. The current situation is that people from countries that are able to obtain a work visa by September 30 will depart in November or December, and those who are unable to obtain a work visa by then will be deferred until fall 2021, which is an additional one year later than the original departure date. That makes it more than two years since I graduated from university.

I’m just a little upset and disappointed because no updates were given prior to this information being dropped. I was supposed to receive my placement mid-June and submit my paperwork by July 6 (which I cannot submit until Tokyo announces placement information), but up until today (July 9), there has been no update email regarding the situation from Tokyo. I understand COVID-19 makes everything unpredictable, but a “hey, we’re not sure ourselves what the plan is since things are unpredictable right now, but we will keep you updated as soon as we can” email would have been nice to ease everyone’s anxieties versus a last minute “departure has been deferred. You either leave by the end of the year or have to wait another year.” It’s upsetting because many people have quit their jobs and didn’t renew their housing leases because they expected to leave for a new job come September. Just seems a little extreme and unfair that it’s either we have our visas by September 30 or we wait until the following year with no departure options for the months in between.

This also raises the question if Tokyo will take not just the shortlisted people from countries who are able to obtain visas and therefore are eligible to begin their contracts this year, but also automatically bump people from the alternate waitlist to compensate for the lack of people due to other countries’ shortlisted people being unable to obtain work visas. If this does happen, would that mean some shortlisted people who are unable to obtain work visas by the end of September may not even have a placement available for them come next year?

I’m also concerned that I will have to redo my paperwork if I am unable to obtain a visa by the end of September. I paid hundreds of dollars to obtain all the paperwork and complete health examinations for this job, which was already a huge amount by itself, but I would be devastated to know that I have to pay that much money again because some of the paperwork are required to have been completed within six months of departure. Plus, it took a lot of time completing the fingerprinting and health exams since I had to drive outside my city multiple times to do these.

I understand and agree that safety measures need to be taken to reduce coronavirus exposure and that things are unpredictable because of COVID-19. I’m just a little upset because it feels like JET has been leaving us incoming employees out of the loop. So many of us have quit our jobs and given up things in our lives for this program. It would be nice if communication was better instead of giving us paperwork deadlines and upcoming announcement dates but being silent on the matter even after those dates have passed.

As of now, it looks like my earliest chance of departure is November or December with a possibility of departure being pushed back to fall 2021. I guess I need to look into full-time jobs as a backup plan in case things fall apart. In any case, I cannot afford to waste any more time not accumulating work experience. I just pray everything will work according to God’s plan.

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