Rural Placements: How rural?

[tdot9]

Hello friends, I am an aspiring JET from Canada with a question for current JETs.

I am currently teaching at a school in Gyeongju City, South Korea. Gyeongju is a city of about 270,000 people and is considered rural, albeit a small city.

I understand that JET placements are in "rural" locations but I'm not exactly sure what is mean by "rural" in this case. I personally would prefer a city that is at least the size of Gyeongju and would not like to be put anywhere smaller.

So for you JETS in "rural areas", what cities were you placed in and what are their populations? Also, have you heard of anyone getting placed anywhere smaller than a 270,000 person city?

Thank you!

[teabot]

the standard unofficial four-letter motto of the JET Programme stands.

not all JET placements are rural. i live in a pretty big city (pop. 720,000)--it's not close to the size of Tokyo or anything, but still. there are rural-ish placements, and i'm sure there are middle of nowhere placements as well. i don't know about population sizes, though.

also it's not necessarily easy to judge the rurality of placements by population numbers. my city has urban areas, but there are also mountain village areas that are still part of the city with schools that have student populations in the single digits. no JETs live/are placed up in those super rural areas, but that doesn't mean that similar placements don't exist in other cities. so seeing "xx City" on a piece of paper doesn't necessarily mean neon lights and big city life.

i'm sure people with more inaka experience can tell you more, but i'm pretty confident that there are a number of placements that are well below 200,000 people in population. i traveled to another city in my prefecture the other day (which is still fairly urban by my standards) which apparently has a population of 25,000. i know someone in a neighboring town with a population of 6,000, and i have a feeling you can get much more isolated than that.

[Jen_KyotoPA]

Well, JET placements are in a variety of locations -- some are urban, some are suburban, some are rural, and the number is fairly mixed.

That said, a city of 270,000? That doesn't seem very rural. What makes you describe it that way? I would certainly guess that most JET placements are more rural than that. And yes, they get much, much more rural. JETs going to fishing villages with populations of say 10,000 isn't particularly uncommon.

[Guiteau]

My prefecture doesn't even have a city of 270,000 in it; Mito is close to that, but...

I would certainly guess that most JET placements are more rural than that.

My impression, too. I even imagine most JETs are in a more rural place than I am, and my city isn't even 200,000.

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

Yeah...JET may not be what you're looking for, hey. My city is roughly 182,000 people and JET gets much much smaller than that population-wise.

[akarih]

my city have about 100,000 people but my town only have around 10,000.
still i have supermarket, a few conbini, a train station for about 20mins by bike
i dun really think it's that rural, but certainly it's no way near urban.

surprisingly, it only takes me 10mins by bike to my base JHS from my apartment, and even less to my elementary school.

[Siyris]

If less than 270,000 is too rural for you, JET is not the right place for you. Most placements in JEat are pretty rural. And those that are more urban (read as cities of 200,000 or less) often have JETs living in much smaller areas.
That said, there are some extremely rural placements. For example, my town is 1282 in population. We are technically part of the next city over which is 90,000 but it is a 40 minute drive into town. I am one o the most rural JETs I know, but even so, 270,000 is not rural. And if that is your cut off point, apply for Aeon or GABA instead of JET as those programs are more likely to place you in a more urban area.

[kdelponte]

About 11,000 in my town. I know people in even smaller towns.

[Gekishinken]

270,000 does not seem rural to me. That seems suburban at least. If you want something with a population size around that you may want to avoid JET all-together and go for an eikaiwa. Places like AEON basically guarantee urban/suburban placements.

[AVN]

I know that some cities can feel more rural than others but if you're looking for plus 200 000 people than, as others have said, JET is probably not right for you.

I am in a town of 4600 people and I know people in smaller placements than me.

I would like to know what you mean by rural. I find the word to be very misleading as it is so subjective. To me it seems crazy to see the word rural and city in the same sentence let alone a city of 270 000 people. However I have had people explain that by rural they mean something other than what I do and it makes sense.

[EhimeDave]

"Rural" depends on who you talk to. Pretty much everyone in Japan thinks that any place in Shikoku is a rural backwater. Including Matsuyama, Tokushima, Kochi city, and Takamatsu each with over 250,000 people...People in Tokyo think any city with under 1,000,000 people is rural. It's relative. I imagine the same concept is in Korea.

My placement had less than 3,000 people so yea, there are some fairly rural spots in the JET program. Also keep in mind that "rural" in Japan doesn't really compare with "rural" in the USA, Canada, or Australia where you might be a 10 hour drive from the nearest town of 50,000 people. In Japan, even the most rural of places are usually within 2-3 hours drive to an urban center. Unless you get stuck on an island or up in Hokkaido...

[AVN]

"Rural" depends on who you talk to. Pretty much everyone in Japan thinks that any place in Shikoku is a rural backwater. Including Matsuyama, Tokushima, Kochi city, and Takamatsu each with over 250,000 people...People in Tokyo think any city with under 1,000,000 people is rural. It's relative. I imagine the same concept is in Korea.

My placement had less than 3,000 people so yea, there are some fairly rural spots in the JET program. Also keep in mind that "rural" in Japan doesn't really compare with "rural" in the USA, Canada, or Australia where you might be a 10 hour drive from the nearest town of 50,000 people. In Japan, even the most rural of places are usually within 2-3 hours drive to an urban center. Unless you get stuck on an island or up in Hokkaido...

Even in Hokkaido you wouldn't be more than 2-3 hours from a city of over 50 000. Unless as you said you were on an island or possibly way out on a peninsula but even then it's just closer to the 4 hour mark maybe 3 depending on your speed.

[tdot9]

Wow thank you all for your helpful answers! Gyeongju isn't that rural by any means but my recruiter referred to it as rural as I was applying to go there. It is assumed that in EPIK (the Korean equivalent to JET) when you are told that you will be put in 'the provinces' rather than a specific city, that you will be placed rurally. That being said, I'm not sure if I want to be placed in a very small fishing village. Thank you all for your suggestions, I'll look into the private school system.

[Fukuisaurus]

I live in the capital city of Fukui Prefecture, with about 270,000 people. My placement is considered "urban" by most JET standards. A few JETs here in Fukui live in small towns with less than 10,000 people. This is not uncommon.

[Namisuke]

Whether or not a place is rural is not up to opinion - there are certain things a place needs in order to become a city, but it differs from country to country. Here is the requirement for Japan:

1. Population is more than 50,000.
2. 60% or more of buildings are in the city centre.
3. 60% or more of the households work for non Primary sector of the economy.
4. Has a system to function as a city.

The definition of town differs by each prefecture minimum requirement of 4,000 to 15,000.

Keep in mind though that a place with "City" in the name might not really seem like a city because of the way they were formed. Many "cities" are made up of towns and villages with an invisible line drawn around them to join them together. They would therefore be within the definition of a city because of the stretched boundary line. Therefore, you could request a city on your application, get a city, and then be placed in a village within the city boundary. The "city" I live in has abotu 45,000 people, but they sometimes make exceptions if you just fall short of the 50,000 people required. The boundary stretches far to get the number of people needed. People will usually refer more to the towns they are from than from the official city name because they are so far away from each other and are unique in their own ways.

The JET Programme focusses on placing ALTs in the more rural areas (read the information on the website), so I agree that you should apply directly to schools in cities if you can't handle living in the countryside.

IMO, living in the countryside has so many perks - gorgeous scenery, great food, awesome festivals, friendly people who are more willing to talk to you at random, many outdoor activities, etc. I was worried about my placement at first, but now whenever I go to Tokyo, I get homesick for Akita.