The Ministry of Education is proposing to employ 600 foreigners as full-time teachers within 5 years, as a means to improve language teaching in schools nationwide. Currently, foreign teachers generally serve as assistants and the Nikkei says only about a dozen foreigners have regular teaching staff status across the country. The Ministry has included this idea along with proposals to encourage more high school children to spend time abroad and more rigorous testing of local teachers. The teachers will be distributed evenly across the country, with a pair for each administrative district. At this early stage, there are no indications of whether contract terms will be the same as for other staff at middle and high schools or what kind of qualifications candidates will need to be accepted.
Source (Japanese)