Ibaraki Christian is a liberal arts university located in a beautiful area about 100 km northeast of Tokyo. Our campus is about a twenty-minute walk from the closest beach on the Pacific Ocean. Due to our long history of international exchange with more than twenty schools around the world, teachers and staff here are familiar with and extremely helpful and friendly to interns from abroad.
The well-established internship program at IC includes 24-hour support for both working and living environments. Mentors support and guide interns to help them achieve their personal and professional goals throughout their time with us. Interns are generally set up with housing of their preference, host families or furnished apartments, and the IC staff help them get moved in comfortably. Our staff also help interns adjust to living in Japan by taking them shopping for essentials or to the bank or post office after arriving. Our bilingual teachers, staff and students provide interns with all the help they need to enjoy interning at IC and their experience in Japan.

We also provide interns with Japanese lessons on campus free of charge. For more information, please read the At School Section.

We offer many cultural events such as flower arrangement, calligraphy and tea ceremony, both on and off campus. Interns have also enjoyed Japanese-style barbecues at school and with homestay families. Interns have had tours of a nearby temple and shrine with explanations by the priests. In the K-12 world, interns have taught at our kindergarten, visited a nearby correspondence school, taught high school students at our college campus, acted as ALTs at a public junior high school and observed and worked with an ALT at another public junior high school. We continue to work on adding new events and experiences for interns. Please note that we are unable to offer all activities and events every semester. Our students are also always excited to talk with interns and make sure that they enjoy their time in Japan. Students sometimes organize trips to take interns to Disneyland and other amusement parks, Mt. Fuji, Nikko, other temples and shrines and, of course, Tokyo.

The work week for interns can be either four or five days long so interns are able to have long weekends to explore and enjoy the beauty of Japan if they wish. We are also flexible if other opportunities come up for short-term travel. Previous interns have taken trips to Korea, Thailand and other parts of Japan while they have been interning with us.

The internship here at Ibaraki Christian will provide you with an unforgettable experience. We will help you grow as a teacher and a person, and give you a chance to live in and experience the amazing culture of Japan.

Intern responsibilities include teaching and or participating in language and culture education during regularly-scheduled classes taught by university teachers; tutoring, leading, or participating in Chat Hour, where interested students gather together to speak English with a teacher, intern or exchange student; and other such activities. Interns also have office hours, during which they are available for students who would like to talk or get help with their studies. Interns also plan, lead and participate in extra-curricular activities such as sports, barbecues and parties. All interns are supervised by IC staff and faculty and assisted by IC students.

Interning abroad will facilitate your personal growth and development in ways relevant to the international world that we are part of. Interning abroad will also set you apart from others in future searches for internships and employment as well as for applying to graduate school. Simply studying abroad sets you apart from the crowd, but interning abroad puts you in an even more select group. While there are opportunities for cultural exchange studying abroad, you may not gain the many skills necessary for your future employment. This internship program, on the other hand, will provide you with training in an academic environment and allow you to improve your public speaking, teamwork, and leadership skills while giving you an opportunity to live, study and learn abroad.

Doing an internship teaching in Japan will certainly strengthen your resume and in fact, many of our previous interns have been accepted on the JET Program. Other interns have been accepted for Fulbright scholarships to India, Korea and Taiwan.

We are looking for intern candidates who can come for three months during our spring (April – July), fall (September – December) and winter (November – January) internships. If you are interested in a December – January internship, the minimum time is four weeks.

Our spring semester starts in early April and goes until the first week of August. There is no school from the second week of August to mid-September, so internships are not possible during this time. The fall semester then runs from mid-September to the end of January with a two-week winter break at the end of December. There is no school in February and March, so internships are not possible during this time. May to July internships, which are summer internships for North Americans and Europeans, are the most popular and the most competitive.

 You are responsible for your airfare, transportation and living costs. We do provide a monthly stipend for meals on campus.

While you are responsible for your transportation to and from Japan and living expenses, you don’t need to pay anything to Ibaraki Christian University. Some overseas internship programs to first-world countries are run by companies that charge high fees. In comparison, our program is inexpensive. You do not need to go through a company to participate in this internship. Please contact us directly. It is possible to do a 90-day internship for under $5,000 US. Although difficult, some students from abroad who live in student apartments spend under $1,000 a month on food rent and utilities. With your plane fare, insurance costs and extra housing fees such as the deposit of 10,000 yen as a cleaning fee, it is possible to spend under $5,000. Rates may change dependent on the exchange rate.

For apartments, daily transportation is usually free and within walking distance, but homestays may require purchase of train and/or bus passes. Apartment rent may or may not include utilities. Electricity, gas and water are quite expensive compared to North America and high usage, e.g., using the heater all day in winter, will result in increased fees. The values in the chart below are approximations and may change.