Leaving JETs Checklist

• Prepare all teaching materials for your successor.

   
• Download the "Predecessor to Successor Form" (English) , fill it out, and give it to your CO to send with your successor's welcome letter.
 
• Download the "CO to Successor Form" (Bilingual), and give to to your CO to fill out and give to your successor.
 
• Designate a Tax Representative (for your pension tax refund).
 
• Cancel your newspaper and magazine subscriptions, your keitai contract, your Internet service contract, car insurance contract, etc.
 
• Pay your bills! (Your office should help you with this.)
• Rent
• Electricity, gas, and water bills (Arrange ahead of time for your meters to be read on the last day. The bill can be paid on the spot.)
• Domestic and International telephone bills (Your Contracting Organization owns the phone lines, so you cannot have it 'turned off' without their approval. However, you can change the name on your last day and call 2-3 days in advance for your last payment. Leave the money with your supervisor.)
• Other (Internet, keitai, satellite TV, etc.)
 
• Transfer bank balances and/or close bank accounts. *WARNING* Some people have not been able to have their meters read and pay on the spot. If this is the case, you will need to leave a bank account open with money to pay bills in it. Your school should then send your bankbook, money, and hanko to your address in your home country.

   
• Return your medical insurance card to your Contracting Organization.
 
• Leave your forwarding address with your office and the post office. If you leave Japan, the post office will only forward mail sent to you that has come from overseas. Mail from Japan will be returned to sender. If you stay in Japan, all your mail and parcels will be forwarded to you for up to one year.
 
• Clean your apartment (Your Contracting Organization may also require that you have the futons cleaned and replace any damaged shoji or tatami.)
 
• Leave for your successor:
• All your contact information
• Town map and information about the local shops, restaurants, etc.
• Bus and train schedules
• List of emergency and work phone numbers
• Garbage arrangements: time and categories
• Copies and explanations of your bills
• Office/school seating chart with names, job titles, responsibilities
• Notes on projects, team teaching, class levels, lesson plans etc.
• Anything else you wish your predecessor had left you!
 
• Encourage at least one JTE to get in contact with the new ALT before they come to Japan so they will feel welcome.
 
• Be sure to tell your school not to throw out things in your apartment that you have left for your successor.
 
• Write or update a guide about your area for the Niigata website that your successor and other JETs in your area can use.
 
• Hand in your Alien Registration Card to immigration authorities at your port of exit.
 

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