Placement trends

I need to invent a new word for placements.

How about places where people live.

Wait that still has the word place in it.

Damnit.

Anyway, there’s a Google map where 2012 JETs have been pinning their placement results onto. There’s been some interesting trends popping up on the map.

For the majority of placements, no one really got their preferences. Though, on the positive side, for those who didn’t get their preference, there were attempts made to put them somewhere near their placement. So within that majority, many ended up near one of their top three. For those who did not have any preferences, majority ended up in the Touhoku region of Japan. Some have scattered about Japan, but majority have been put in the Touhoku region.

A few on the official forums think its a combination of Touhoku not getting many preference selections and the assumption that JETs who put down no preference are the most flexible.

There were a lot of JETs who did get their first choice. Some got their second while not many got their third choice.

Only around 180< JETs have actually reported on this map. Meaning, this only represents roughly 10 ~ 15% of the total program. Had all 2,000 est. JETs reported, I’m sure the results would be more balanced or dramatically different. In the meantime, this map has really proved to show some interesting outlook on how have preferences translates into actual placement in Japan. It still looks like when picking regions/prefecture/cities on the application it still plays a big part. Or, at least, in my experience.

Still waiting on my pred and CO to get with me. I found out I have to pay some form of key money. Suckage.