The role was created by the Japanese Ministry of Education at the time of the creation of the JET Programme as a translation of the term 外国語指導助手 (gaikokugo shidō joshu) or literally "foreign language instruction assistant".
In addition to a degree, ALTs are also required to either be native English speakers, or provide proof of learning the language for a specified period of time, usually at least five years.
ALTs entering on the JET programme are not required to have any prior teaching experience or ESL training.
Some AETs dispatched to City of Nagoya public schools have contracts that begin in mid-May and end in mid-February.
By combining the 23 national holidays with the time off during school holidays, the actual number of working days per year is somewhere near 200 through private companies, which is one of the major attractions of the ALT position, however many schools require you to undertake other tasks when not teaching, so the actual hours worked are similar to other jobs in Japan.
Sometimes ALTs are asked to help teach special education classes, which may include students who have barriers to learning.
They may also be asked to take part in after/before school club activities (bukatsudō), such as sports, calligraphy, music or ikebana, to learn more about the culture alongside their students and to foster international exchange.
The overall duties of an ALT can vary hugely depending on the whims of teachers, schools, BOEs and cities.
Since then more and more local boards of education have turned to private language companies to provide ALTs rather than using the JET Programme.
There is the impression that the private sector in general continues to grow as The JET Programme loses share in the market.
Their reasoning is that the 29.5 hours a week working time written into the contracts fall below an erroneous minimum of 3/4 full-time necessary for eligibility.
[5] However, the Japanese government has recent stated that there is, in fact, no minimum legal work time requirement for enrollment in Shakai Hoken.
In 2006, ALTs in Kanagawa Prefecture who were previously hired directly as part-time workers rejected the privatization of their jobs to Interac, a nationwide language services dispatch company, and took the Kanagawa Prefecture Board of Education to the Labour Relations Board where the case is still on-going.
As in many cases, the likely cause of the dissolution of the direct-hire situation draws back to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi who took a hard-line stance on privatization (e.g. Japan Post) and the idea of allowing local governments more flexibility in deciding how to spend their budgets.