Motivation is one of the most popular topics on language teaching and learning. Many studies on language learning focus on students' motivation; however, teachers' motivation is easily overlooked in the area of the applied linguistics field. In this paper, the researcher presents a study to investigate how satisfied English teachers at private universities in Japan are with their work as English instructors. In this study, the researcher created questionnaires and conducted a survey of thirty English teachers at private universities in Japan. This study shows the perception and the degree of satisfaction in their jobs. The study vividly shows what the most significant obstacles are as well as approaches to solve the problems. The researcher asked participants what significant aspect of teaching is included in their personal teaching philosophy. The major question the researcher was looking for was the following: what the reward was, what obstacles existed, and what possible solutions were for the problematic aspects in the field. Overall, this study clearly provides the reader a clearer idea of what motivates teachers and how closely it is related to their productivity in their daily teaching. (Contains 3 tables.)