Last updated: October 2025
As you countdown the final months, weeks or days on your JET journey, you should start thinking and planning out the actions and next steps to take as you depart.
The JET Programme site has helpful information on the main aspects of departing the JET Programme such as Pension Refund, Reverse Culture Shock and Post JET Employment http://jetprogramme.org/en/ajg/
Checklist for Leaving Japan
- Organize the teaching materials you used for your successor.
- Designate a Tax Representative (for your The Pension Refund).
- Cancel any subscriptions, credit cards, phone contract, your Internet service contract, car insurance contract, etc.
- Pay your final bills! (your CO should help you with this.)
- Rent
- Electricity, gas, and water bills (arrange ahead of time for your meters to be read on the last day. The bill can be paid on the spot.)
- Other (Internet, phone etc.)
- Transfer bank balances and/or close bank accounts.
- Return your medical insurance card to your CO.
- Leave your forwarding address with your CO and the post office. If you leave Japan, the post office will only forward mail sent to you that has come from overseas. Mail from Japan will be returned to sender. If you stay in Japan, all your mail and parcels will be forwarded to you for up to one year. If possible, it may be helpful to have your mail forwarded to a Japanese friend who will agree to send it to you.
- Clean your apartment (your CO may also require that you have the futons cleaned and replace any damaged shoji or tatami.)
- Prepare and send a guide for your successor with information like:
- Your preferred contact information
- Town map and information about the local shops, restaurants, etc.
- Bus and train schedules
- List of emergency and work phone numbers
- Garbage arrangements: time and categories
- Explanations of your bills
- Office/school seating chart with names, job titles, responsibilities
- Notes on projects, team teaching, class levels, lesson plans etc.
- Helpful resources and websites
- Anything else you wish your predecessor had left you!
- Encourage at least one JTE to get in contact with the new ALT before they come to Japan so they will feel welcome.
- Be sure to tell your school not to throw out things in your apartment that you have left for your successor.
- Tell the immigration authorities at the airport that you are leaving Japan permanently. They may punch your Alien Registration Card or ask you to surrender your Residence Card.
Reverse Culture Shock
No matter what you may think now, chances are you will get some kind of culture shock on return to your home country. Home probably won’t have stayed the same waiting for you to get back and neither will your friends and family. Certainly you have changed in some way in order to be able to function in Japanese society, and you may not function so well in your “home” culture as you used to. This is a stressful thing to come to terms with. Think about in what ways you and your home have changed since you’ve been in Japan.
Try to deal with the loss of Japan as much as possible while you’re still here. Make lists of what you’ve achieved; what you would like to take home with you (abstract and concrete); and what you can’t take home and will have to say farewell to. What you will really miss about Japan and what you really won’t. Set long-term goals.
Be sure to have appropriate farewells with the people you may not see again for a long time. A big night out may be an appropriate way to say goodbye to some people but maybe not others. Think about how you want to say goodbye. Don’t say a hurried farewell to your close friends because you’re caught up in the business of preparing to leave. Emotional preparations are just as important as packing, holiday planning and preparing for your successor.
When you get home, be sure to take plenty of time to reflect on your Japanese experience. Probably you will be able to make sense of it all a lot better from a home (or is that foreign?) setting. Just as most of us learn a lot about our home culture from our time here, we can expect to realise a lot about Japan from home. Remember though that just because we are fascinated by the beauty and intricacy of Japanese culture doesn’t mean that our friends and family will be. They can’t possibly relate on the same level. Join your local JET Alumni Association, exchange language with a Japanese student, take night classes in Japanese – go looking for ways to keep your Japan connection going.
Don’t stress about getting stressed! The worst re-entry shock you experience may be that you can’t find your favourite soy sauce to put on your tofu. However, do take the time to prepare adequately for the emotional side of going home as well as the material stuff.
More information is available in the JET Programme General Information Handbook.
Thanks to Dr. Jim McRae from the CLAIR Counselling Committee for this information.
