2015 CIR Placement requests

[okonomiyaki2]

Hey all,
I'm graduating soon and I am planning to apply for JET CIR this December.
If possible, I would like to get some information to help me make a decision on my 3 placement requests.
I know that most people don't get the places they request and that its important to be happy with whatever placement you receive, however I'd prefer not to list places that don't have any vacancies coming up
So I would be really grateful if any current CIRs could let me know your general location and whether you are likely or unlikely to leave next year in august 2015.
It would also be useful to know what your job mainly involves ie, heaps of translating, school visits, event planning, interpreting, a mix etc
If you know about other peoples situations (who don't use this forum), or have any other useful information to share, it would be much appreciated.
I am particularly interested in possible availabilities in Blocks 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. AJET Blocks | AJET (http://ajet.net/ajet-blocks/)

Thanks in advance!

[Gizmotech]

There are very few (if any) CIRs on this forum. Also, JET applications are already in progress and should be finished soon.

[greyjoy]

Although any request for placement is going to be up to chance, I think it's a good idea for an ALT candidate to put down a choice or two after doing some research. It shows a level of initiative even if you just say "I looked online at a few different areas, and this one appeals to me aesthetically."
However, I don't think there's any real point to a CIR candidate to pick a location unless there's a very real and tangible reason (Family, field of study). There are so few CIR positions to begin with that just getting one is probably much less likely than an ALT getting their placement preference. The odds are stacked way against getting a CIR position in the location of your choice. And while I don't think putting down a casual preference hurts a CIR candidate any more than it does an ALT candidate, I don't think it reflects positively to have someone who should theoretically have some medium intercultural understanding say they want to live in Nara because the Wikipedia page made it look nice.

[JET ProgramCoordinator SF]

Pages from 2014_Application_Guidelines.pdf - Google Drive (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx5UCuHykBeOanZOQU5JRF9hQTA/view?usp=sharing)

This is data from last year's JET Application Guidelines. Check out page 2 for a list of where CIRs were located last year. You can use that to figure out what areas in your interested regions have a high or low number of CIRs. Apply to the areas that have a higher number of CIRs to have a higher chance of placement there, at least statistically. However, be aware that because every Contracting Organization has requests (male/female, driver's license or not, nationality, etc.), even though Prefecture A may have 20 CIRs and Prefecture B may have 2, you may not fit Prefecture A's requests. It all depends, but given that we don't know what a specific CO's request is (and that those requests can change each year), it's still better to play the numbers game than not use any data at all.