Using the ALT Jobs Map
What the colours mean, how to find what is open now, and how marking a prefecture works.
How does the ALT Jobs Map work?
The map shows every prefecture in Japan as a piece you can pick up. Selecting one opens a panel listing the Boards of Education in that prefecture that have hired ALTs directly, with any open job at the top.
From there you can open a job, open a Board's own page, or mark the prefecture as somewhere you would work. Selecting a piece on the map and picking its name from the list do the same thing.
What do the colours and dots on the map mean?
Two different things are being shown, and they are kept apart on purpose.
Dots say what a Board of Education is doing. A green dot means a Board in that prefecture has an opening now. An orange dot means one closed within the last 60 days.
The wood of a piece is about you. A prefecture you have marked as somewhere you would work is stained a different wood from the rest of the board, and a prefecture set as your home base is stained differently again. Nothing you mark ever changes a dot.
A piece in plain wood with no dot means no Board there is yet known to hire ALTs directly.
What does Recently Open mean, and can I still apply?
Recently Open means the Board of Education had an opening and its deadline has now passed, within the last 60 days. The listing stays visible because a closed posting is still evidence of a Board that hires ALTs directly, and because these roles tend to come round again.
The deadline on the Board's own page is the one that counts. If it has passed, the application window is closed for that round.
What does On Watch mean, and what is a past hirer?
Both mean the same thing: the Board of Education has posted direct ALT roles before and has nothing open at the moment. It is a record of past hiring, not a claim that a role is coming.
A Board that runs a standing register, taking applications all year without a specific opening, also sits here with a rolling intake note rather than being shown as hiring.
The listings and prefecture pages label this On Watch. The map panel calls it past hirer, because on the map the word watch belongs to your own watchlist and one word could not mean two things.
How do I find the jobs that are hiring right now?
Green pieces on the map are the prefectures with an open posting. Selecting one puts the open job at the top of the panel, and opening it leads to the Board's own recruitment page.
The same openings are listed prefecture by prefecture on the jobs pages, which are ordinary pages you can link to and share.
How do I find jobs in one particular prefecture?
Pick the prefecture on the map, or open its own jobs page. Each prefecture has a page listing the Boards of Education there that hire ALTs directly, and anything open at the moment.
Those pages are shareable links, so a prefecture you are watching can be sent to someone else and will open on the same view.
How do I say where I am willing to work or relocate?
Select a prefecture on the map and press “Add to watchlist”. That adds it to your watchlist and counts it toward the anonymous demand total that Boards of Education in that prefecture can see.
If you live in Japan, one prefecture can also be set as your home base, which separates the place you already live from the places you would move to.