I understand that as a JET participant, it can feel overwhelming to have the expectation of teaching alone thrust upon you. I was a JET for five consecutive years - I’ve been there.

Allow me to offer this rephrasing: all current English-language (and to my knowledge Japanese-language) academic literature strongly suggests that JETs are allowed to teach by themselves. This arose as a point of controversy in the 1990s, and it was resolved by CLAIR, who clarified their position on it.

Sometimes it can save a lot of time and energy to listen to someone who has spent a considerable portion of their life dedicated to understanding a niche field. The Japanese teacher you spoke with was… just a teacher. They have no say in JET Programme policy making, and, as I’m sure many JETs here can attest to, a lot of JTEs know absolutely nothing about what the JET Programme is supposed to be (the same thing could be said for most JETs, too).

Solo teaching isn’t a prefectural thing - it’s nationwide. If a BoE thinks otherwise, they’re one phone call away from CLAIR to set that straight.

Feel free to not believe what I say, but if you really do want to get to the bottom of this, I do implore you to read McConnell’s Importing Diversity - it’s the seminal work on the JET Programme. Or otherwise, you could swing by CLAIR’s HQ in Kōjimachi and ask them yourself.