Imagine these scenarios. There’s an upcoming work conference and your school takes care of your shinkansen ticket and hotel room reservation, and then asks you for money. Or, without giving you a single yen, they ask you to take care of it all yourself. Or perhaps one day someone at your school comes up to you and asks you to pay 50,000 yen for that conference you attended months ago. Either way, you may wonder why is it coming out of your own pocket, when the Contracting Organization was supposed to cover it?
In Japan (or at least on the JET Programme), this is very common. The bills need to be paid before the funding comes through, and for the time being, the employee is responsible. Sometimes you get a little extra with your paycheck, only to later be the money to cover your travel expenses. The best advice about this is as soon as you can, set aside about ¥50,000-100,000 for emergency money. It’s a lot, but better to be safe than sorry so that when they ask you to pay up front for something, you won’t be caught off guard.
Also unlike most Western countries, a fixed rate is given regardless of the hotel or transportation. If the fixed rate is 10,000 yen per night for a hotel and you stayed in a 5,000 yen hotel, the remaining 5,000 yen can be yours. Conversely, if you stay in a 20,000 yen hotel, you will be responsible for the remaining 10,000 yen. Please note that the Keio Plaza Hotel is slightly more expensive, so SHS JETs and some JHS JETs may be asked to pay slightly more than they receive in this case, and this case only.
