he Voice and the Realities 2007

Free Comments

The free comments have been included in the report uned-ited except for confidential comments, but all names of universities and individuals have been omitted.

Insecure Employment

Lack of employment security is the number one problem for many part-time university lecturers. Whilst there is certain inevitability about this --
Student numbers fluctuate, student interests and sub-ject demands change, many university authorities know by late summer that staff requirements for the following aca-demic year will change. For a variety of reasons that might include one or more of the following [a] ineffi-ciency [b] thoughtlessness [c] complacency [d] arrogance -- treating teachers as 'things' to be slotted into timetables or discarded at will -- Part-time staff are often told in late November or even December that particular courses will not be running the following year. This causes major and often unnecessary disruption, especially if classes have been offered in other universities and then turned down on the strength that current classes will continue in the next academic year.
On several occasions I have come to work on days when no classes were scheduled because I had misunder-stood information I received in Japanese.
I have no job security whatsoever, in that any univer-sity may decline to renew my annual contract for any rea-son or no reason at all.
As foreigners, we have no power to protest if we are unfairly dismissed and the labour standards board does not enforce any laws for its own people let alone foreigners working part time.
We are at the whim of the boss and whether he likes us or not.
I have experienced non renewal of contracts with no reason and have seen other people lose work at the whim of the boss. Lives in tatters.
We are guests of Japan forever. Make the most of what is usually easy money teaching university. Face it. It is not teaching but edutainment. So take any work and money handing out and enjoy guest treatment while you are here.
And make sure you don't resign yourself to being a second class citizen for the rest of your life by staying here, marrying and raising a family. Total nonsense to give up your dignity as an individual human rights in a nation where there are no human rights. Take your wife or husband home. Like my dad said, while your wife is pregnant.
Better still, don't take any human souvenirs home. Life will be much easier back home.
Part-time lecturers need long term contracts for pro-tection and stability. Why do foreign English teachers lose classes before Japanese English teachers?
Why is the salary increase supposedly negotiated by the unions not mandatory and why hasn't anyone I know ever heard of it?
Why are we subject to annual salary reductions when even the most pessimistic economic reports show a posi-tive rate of inflation and other workers being awarded annual increases? Why are there age-limits in job recruit-ment advertisements when age-discrimination is supposed to be against the law?
It is always the part time teachers who lose their jobs first at times of reduction in student numbers.
It is very worrying that universities are generally only advertising limited contract jobs, for so-called full-time jobs; 3-years-and-you-are-out seems standard. In addition, pay for those kinds of jobs is being lowered, and most disturbing is the fact that age limits are being set on all sorts of jobs across the board.
The most important issue for me is security. Before working at university, I worked full-time for many years at a high school. Although I have always had my yearly contracts renewed, I can never assume that that will be the case from year to year. Also, it's never clear which classes I will be teaching from one year to the next.
I strongly support the efforts of the unions here to make working conditions better for teachers. After teach-ing in Japan for 24 years, I have seen the situation dete-riorate in recent years. It appears that Japanese schools are testing the waters of how little they can get by paying teachers, things such as universities hiring part-timers from places like **** to take classes and save money. This is taking place even in big name, prosperous univer-sities.
I know many highly qualified, experienced foreign teachers who have simply left because of the poor work-ing conditions. I have also heard of teachers being told not to have anything to do with the unions, even by a big-name university. I have serious doubts about the ef-fects of brutal cost-cutting on this educational system and what is a poor situation for both teachers and students and the harm it is causing to Japan. I hope this questionnaire makes some difference in improvement of education here.
We (the part-time teachers) have been told that a lot of us will be losing our jobs in 2007.
That point is very worrying as we all rely on our jobs to survive. Of course every one is madly looking for more secure alternate work just in case we are the ones to lose our job. As we are all on one year contracts I guess that there is nothing that we can do about it.
I think that the union should not have and should not support the creation of limited shokutaku positions. It is precisely because most of the older lecturers know that we would not be able to find new positions after the contract ends that we have not applied for these posi-tions. People should not sign a contract and ask to change it later. Ideally, and obviously irrealistically (sic), the un-ion should boycott them. I know that this is unrealistic, as the universities would recruit on foreign campuses as they have done and still do for the limited contract jokin.
But I personally will not fight to extend the period of these contracts.
I think most part-timers feel the lack of security, low wage and lack of a social security package as the biggest problems.
I have to admit that at my age it is becoming more and more difficult to find new places for work, even if I have acquired much experience at teaching. Every year I won-der if I will be able to continue teaching for the next year, but I have learned not to worry too much with that. Inside, I know that I will be able to do something else when the time comes... because it will eventually come... When we are not needed anymore, we have to move on to some-thing else, and in many cases it might be a blessing rather than a curse...
I understand that some of my colleagues have more difficulties than me for getting new jobs. That may apply even more to my Japanese colleagues, so the discrimina-tion is more on their side, I think. I feel sorry about that.
There also is the problem of seniority. In most devel-oped countries, seniority and job security are mutually linked, while the teaching jobs in the private sector are becoming more and more 'commercial' in general, be-cause schools have to compete more and more to survive. Old timers might then be looked upon as less attractive for a young clientele. Here is a potential problem that may become more and more rampant and unsolvable, because it is very difficult to prove the real reasons for our dis-missal. What is officially written often doesn't correspond to the reality.
In most cases, it is advisable to stay put with our pre-sent places of work even if we experience difficulties. Unfortunately, that is a rather negative conclusion for the ones amongst us who want to enjoy our work, but still want to do a good job.
Finally labour insecurity and the low wages mean that part time lecturers should teach at least 20 koma (1 and 1/2 hour each) per week to make a living thus compro-mising the quality of lessons and the development of stu-dent-teacher relationships. This insecurity is reflected in the lack of benefits for sick leave, maternity/child care, unemployment and pension all of which are inevitable life events. This too impacts the quality of life and conse-quently of teaching.
University A
3-year limit. I am due to finish in March 2007, but would continue if given the choice. A colleague has taken their case to the labour commission and I am awaiting the result before deciding what to do. The university wants 'fresh blood,' but is choosing to pay new instructors less and has recently changed the working conditions to 'may be renewed up to a maximum of 3 years,' previously re-newal was automatic.
Junior College affiliated to University A
Good course for first year students, but large groups and an irrelevant text make teaching second year students a nightmare.
A 3-year limit was introduced after I had started working there. When I asked when the 3 years started I was told on day 1. I mentioned that nothing had been said at the inter-view and I was not happy. I finish this year, but have been offered a job elsewhere so will not be fighting this.
University B
A top national university. Respected by colleagues of all nationalities. Freedom of text choice and professors are available to discuss ideas and give advice. The wages are low, no transport costs are paid and one of my classes has 60 students which is not ideal, but the atmosphere is good and facilities for part-timers are more than sufficient.
Grad School of University B
A good place to teach. No complaints at all.
A Well constructed questionnaire
If I didn't have a full time job, I would be very very very very very dissatisfied with the conditions of the hi-jokin. As it is, I'm just very dissatisfied.
I think that you should find out about the three year fixed contract, whereby teachers are forced to quit even if they have been good, productive members of staff.
a. After 10 years at ***** University they take some of my koma and give them to somebody new, of course not telling me any reason...(but I found out).
They refused to let me change my weekday this year, in order to be able to kick me out. I am resisting...
b. At ***** University a few years ago they cut the salaries of older foreigners by up to 25%. Complaints without success.
c. At ***** University they now try to cut older for-eigners salaries, but the union is watching...
Blatant ageism is becoming too rampant. Hiring ceil-ings of 35 to 45 years of age ENSURE that one will not find a full-time position as the requirements for getting a full-time position are becoming stricter (i.e. requiring a PhD, multiple publications, etc.). Add to this the misuse of term contracts (currently on a term contract myself)--used to keep teachers from getting into tenured/secure posi-tions; this combination makes it impossible to work as a part-timer without daily/annual trepidation regarding how we are going to support our families from year to year. This is especially restricting as the population of educable university students decreases every year...

Salary

There is a last point I want to add. My satisfaction concerning my salary would not be so high if I had chosen to have children. I think that my decision not to have chil-dren was partly motivated by this realization. Our em-ployers should consider giving a higher salary to the ones who have families to sustain. That would be fair I think.
Yet, adjusting the salaries with dependency conditions would probably cause other problems when it comes to job security, because it would imply that people with families should have more security, which is not true be-cause people with no family have responsibilities about their own sustenance too, and it would engender more discrimination.
I am particularly dissatisfied at the national university where I work part-time. The pay per class is low 8,800 per class with no holiday pay, or make-up classes if they are cancelled by the university. This means that I have to take on classes elsewhere (at other universities) to compensate. Ultimately, it means I am working too hard.
I would leave, but I like the students and I would rather the system changed. I wonder whether the spread of wages is equitable within the university?
At some universities, such as ***** University in *****, they pay part timers fairly well and provide a good learning environment. On the other hand, at ***** Uni-versity they pay mediocre salary and cram 35 students in a classroom, and only give two coma per day. Many universities do not want to give more than one or two coma per day, getting three coma is difficult in some cases and four coma very difficult (I have not uni-versity where I can teach four coma per day).

Discrimination and Inequality

Most universities use cheap part-time labour and are not prepared to commit to employing more foreign teachers on a full-time basis. They still have a superior attitude and do not *treat* not-Japanese as equal even though questionnaires prove they are better teachers.
Security and no pension are the big problems. I feel I do a professional job but I'm treated sometimes like an entertainer. Publishing is difficult and jobs are given to those who publish. Many times, one must put a full-time teachers name on a paper to get it published even though that person does nothing and the full-timers name goes first on the publication. Not fair!
The reason I am not sure about whether I'd like to be a full-time teacher is that between my uni classes and my outside business, my salary is comparable. Of course, what is missing is job security, sick leave and the like. On the other hand, what I do not have to deal with office poli-tics. I have freedom to work as I please, and to earn as much as I please. I do have to work in order to earn a liv-ing, however. And, I have seen too many 'full-time' teachers who do not have to work and do not work, yet still earn a tidy salary. Witnessing this unfairness and the accompanying arrogance begins to grate on one's motiva-tion and morale, as time goes on.
Whether a teacher has 15-20 years experience and residence or whether they have just arrived in Japan, they are paid at the same rate. The 3-year teaching contacts are one example of this problem. Despite the fact that the Ministry of Education has concluded that universities need to improve their English language standards, qualified and experienced teachers are forced to leave -- basically being sent into unemployment. No provisions are made to help find said teachers find their next position. The school ad-ministrations seem to think that these teachers will 'go back to their home countries.' However, increasing num-bers of us reside in Japan and have the same tax and social insurance financial obligations as Japanese workers. I believe this is blatant discrimination based on nationality, not on worker competence.
Monbusho must act to ensure that universities follow current employment law.
The current over use of one year contracts and visiting positions should be curtailed. There should only be ONE employment status for all faculty.
Discriminatory hiring practices based on nationality should be made illegal.
I have been teaching in Japan for 28 years. While I have been mostly treated fairly, I have been clearly dis-criminated against in employment conditions. Japanese are treated well with many social benefits, while I have been constantly seen as an outsider, someone not equal and therefore not necessary or worth considering. At the university where I am full-time the main complaint is that my Japanese language skills are not good enough. Nothing involved with my duties (I have been promoted to full professor) is translated. I am seen as a burden on my Japanese colleagues---they resent it and I feel guilty be-cause my language skills are not good. I fear that even though I have not signed a contract and am treated as the Japanese teachers are, in the future they will ask me to leave. Then I will probably require the help of a teacher's union.
The people I work for (with) are clearly not committed to equal opportunities for non-Japanese nationals. This is ironic in many ways - not least in that the very same peo-ple will quite happily stand up in front of classrooms full of young people and talk about the importance of social equality and the evils of racism etc. until the cows come home. I guess it's simply a case of some people being more equal than others.
Regarding the recent trend for limited term contracts for so-called full time teachers - it is clear that this is sim-ply a cosmetic fix on inequitable employment practices. By only employing only under 35 year olds, and limiting their tenure, the universities are able to advertise their vacancies within the bounds of normal equal opportunities standards (equitable pay scales and so on) while at the same time avoiding any real commitment to the people they employ.
A better situation would be if a separate category of 'language instructor' were created with different pay scales to tenured professors and no managerial responsi-bilities. President for this is provided by the status of non-Japanese national (especially Korean) High School teachers that was introduced during the nineties. The uni-versities are not committed to equal opportunities - and it would therefore be better to find some kind of compro-mise solution (IMHO).
University A
A private ***** university that is very well off and has no problems recruiting students. I seem to be con-stantly being asked to teach new courses which takes up an enormous amount of preparation time. The texts chosen are not suitable which adds to preparation time, but rec-ommendations of texts are routinely ignored.
I was asked to write an ESL text, but when I submitted a proposal and an estimate of cost to students was told that it was not possible to charge the students and there was no budget available to pay me. I explained I could not afford to work for free. Later the professor asked me to proofread a 20 page paper so I produced an estimate which led to him asking someone else. As a part-timer I resent being asked to do time consuming jobs for nothing. If I was working full-time I would consider some things to be part of my job.
1. Unfair treatment and dismissals of foreign teachers
This has discriminated against its foreign teachers since it opened its doors in March of 1995. Now, in 2005, this university has 4000 students but only one tenured foreign teacher and only about 35 foreign students. Obvi-ously, this university's founders never intended for it to become 'international,' a word used, apparently, only as decoration.
On April 6th, 2004, even though an American Associ-ate Professor had more publications than all Japanese full-time teachers in the English department put together, and had among the highest student evaluations, university officials tried to convince him to sign a one-year contract that would've cut his salary by at least 13% and would've taken his tenure away. He didn't sign. Since that day, he's been victim of nearly constant harassment.
In the above associate professor's ten years at ***** University, he has served faithfully as Director of Com-municative Strategies, in which he has supervised all for-eign English language teachers. With all of his obvious accomplishments, another associate professor, a Japanese (who had been a part-time teacher only nine years earlier) was promoted to full professor. To get her promotion, this woman talked this American associate professor into in-cluding her name on one of the articles that he'd written. Another Japanese English professor was promoted in 2002 to chairperson after only publishing one article in the Eng-lish language arts (written in Japanese) in her forty-year career.
Another American teacher, an Assistant Professor, still at ***** University after seven years, started his full-time career at ***** University four years ago with a contract that said he had to teach double the number of classes than his Japanese colleagues, exemplifying just one of the myriad 'Double Standards'perpetrated at this university against foreign teachers. In March of 2005, university officials illegally forced this American to sign another contract, this time a terminal contract that will force him to leave ***** University in March 2006.
Another American instructor of English had never received even one complaint about his teaching. Nonethe-less, for seven years he was made to teach under what was called a 'Special Contract,' which paid him an unfairly low wage. The very day he finished his final exams in January 2005, university officials told him that they would no longer need him but didn't give him a valid reason. They didn't even say 'thank you' to this person for his seven years of service.
A Chinese woman, a beloved teacher, had far more publications than her Chairwoman and Vice Chairwoman. Also, this woman was the only trilingual person (Chinese, Japanese, and English) in this university's foreign lan-guage department. Nonetheless, she was kept as a part-time teacher of Chinese language for ten years. In January of 2005, immediately after giving her final exam of the school year, university officials fired her with no explanation.
Five foreign teachers (two have been fired and one quit because of being harassed into ill health) were trou-bled by the university's disregard for their teachers' wel-fare; this meant that the university didn't care about its students either, so they joined a teacher's labor union in an effort to make positive changes within the university.
2. Harassment of foreign teachers
The associate professor and asistant professor con-tinue working at this under nearly impossible working conditions. Since April 2004, harassment has come to these foreign teachers in many forms, too many to cite here. Following are just a few examples:
*Police-style interrogations and frequent office visits to foreign teachers' offices with unfair contracts in hand and demanding, 'If you don't sign, you'll be fired!' *In English Department meetings (in which the com-mon language has always been English) the Vice Chair of the Language Center is starting to speak only Japanese, too fast for the two American teachers to understand.
*99% of all university communications (e-mail and hard copy) now come to these American teachers in Japa-nese (mind you, at an 'international' university).
*Being denied use of or access to English department grant funding from the Ministry of Education and all other sources.
*These American teachers were flatly denied an an-nual vacation during both the last Christmas and 2005 Spring break. Japanese teachers, however, were allowed to take the Christmas holiday off and a two-week to one-month holiday during Spring. To take even one day off, the American teachers had to ask special permission, but were usually denied.
*Even as these American teachers work hard to fulfil their duties, they're always aware that university officials are planning in detail how to destroy their careers.
To date, university officials have not conducted themselves in good faith even once during six collective bargaining sessions. February 8th, 2005, the labor union filed this case in the ***** Prefecture Labor Board. For-eign teachers want the university to stop the harassment and to reinstate those who have been fired. So far, how-ever, the university continues the harassment. Also, uni-versity officials, with more lies and denials of bad behav-ior, are not dealing with the labor board in good faith ei-ther.

Working Conditions

Also, it is now almost impossible to gain full time work even though I have an MA and PH.D. degree due to the fact that universities rely so heavily on part time or limited term contract teachers.
Experience should be recognized as a reason to pro-mote teachers from within. Teachers are routinely hired from outside the school to work in higher positions than hijoukin staff who have been there for many years.
I think universities ought to reward long term part-timers who have served them well with full-time jobs or with contract full-time positions. There should be more of these positions available.
Universities want part-timers with publications, but there are few places that allow part-timers to publish. The standards seem to be higher for foreigners than Japanese. I have two graduate degrees, but many of my full-time Japanese colleagues only have a 4-yr degree. Recently many universities are requiring a PhD for full-time em-ployment. The conditions of employment, however, are for teaching, not research. The PhD does not imply a bet-ter teacher. The PhD is for research. Very frustrating to have a PhD in education and MA in another field, but only allowed to teach language classes.
I feel that there is some discrimination in the recruit-ment policies with regard to age.
I think that most universities recruiting teachers on short-term contracts put the teachers on a salary scale related to age - this means that older teachers cost more than younger teachers. I would like to see short-term con-tract teachers all being paid more of a set wage (on the higher side to compensate for the job insecurity). If this were done it would mean that all ages of teachers would be properly considered for short-term contracts and not (as I feel is often practiced now) the ones who are younger.
It is not uncommon to see job ads in which age limits of 40 or less are imposed on foreigners. I am coming up to 49-years old, and I feel I am already on the scrap heap in terms of ever securing a full-time position in a Japanese university, despite my vast experience and commitment to the job over the last 8-years.

Social Insurance and Pension

Regarding insurance and pension. I've only ever had private insurance, which I've paid for myself, and I've never received any information about pensions.
I am not enrolled in any pension plan because I was never informed of pension plan options, nor offered any opportunity to join.
Many foreign lecturers do not want to be forced to join the Japanese Health/Pension system. It is seen as expensive, not cost effective, and not easily transferable to other countries. Most prefer to have private health/pension plans that can be used internationally. Of course we would like universities to partly or fully contribute to such plans.
The university where I do most of my part-time teaching is an old, (125 next year) very traditional univer-sity that pays lip service to employing foreigners. If many had their way they would be 'teaching' English as they have been doing since the Meiji Era without distraction from foreign teachers. All requests for pension and health insurance go unheeded. It is only recently that travel pay-ment has been provided.
Universities pay no pension or health benefits to part-timers, which is very worrying for my future.
Also...
I understand that universities are required to enrol me in various insurance schemes, but I am not sure that this would be to my advantage -- the current health insurance scheme cannot last more than a few years more at current income/spending levels -- it may be that the sooner it col-lapses, the better. Until the system itself is reformed, I don't think that I want any part of it.
For me, this is a hard-sell.
The current pension system is unfair to overseas resi-dents as they lose most or all of their pension payments if they leave Japan before they make 25 years of contribu-tions.
My health insurance is provided through a private non-Japanese company.

Paid Holiday

A big issue for part-time university teachers is the lack of paid holidays. Not getting paid holidays is like having money stolen from us! Most universities do not know or admit that it is our rights, and only offer us make-up les-sons if we are absent from work. I would like yu-kyu-kyu-ka to become an industry standard for all hijokin teachers, accepted by all schools.
This year I tried to claim 1 day of yu-kyu-kyu-ka at one of my universities, and they told me:
a) it was only for Japanese, not foreigners;
b) it was only for full-time teachers, not part-time;
c) it was not included in my contract, so could not be given;
d) other teachers did not claim it, so they could not give it to me;
I had to explain to them that it was in the Labor Stan-dards Law, and that a) it applied to foreigners as well as Japanese (just like paying taxes!), and that b) part-time workers are included (just like taxes!), and that c) even if it wasn't specifically mentioned in my contract, it was my legal right, and the law takes precedence over a contract, and d) the fact that other teachers did not know or have not claimed it is no excuse to deny me my legal rights!
The university legal department then checked the law and determined that I was right, and finally I was paid. But I hope we can promote this issue more so that all teachers do not have to fight with their schools as I did, and can easily claim their paid holidays, which is money in the bank!

Research Allowances

Scholarships/grants available for research are limited for part time teachers and there seems to be little chance to be considered for full time positions as well as to be involved in curriculum and programme development.
Universities these days are pressing part-time staff for publications or want to see that part-timers have a healthy range of publications before they employ them, BUT none of the universities pay research allowances to part-timers. Such allowances would greatly aid part-time teachers in their ability to have the resources to do the research in order to get published. In addition, no university helps with professional development in terms of helping with the cost of courses or providing such courses.
I did not have major computer expenses this year, or research travel this year, but I had major purchases a few years ago, and I expect to have to upgrade to a newer ma-chine in the next few years again as net browsing for teaching material is going to become difficult. I also plan to attend workshops abroad in the next few years.
Kaken-hi!!!!!! Is there such a thing for hijoukin in any Japanese university?

Curriculum and Scheduling

Universities rarely consult part-timers on any curriculum issues.
The full time teachers, course planners and adminis-trators are completely oblivious to the fact that part-time teachers have a very difficult time putting a decent sched-ule together in order to make a living wage.
They make decisions about curriculum changes with-out informing us. We don't necessarily want to be part of the decision making but we would like to be informed of them in advance of implementation and not surprised by the changes.
At one of my universities, there is no supervisor that I know of. There is a full-timer who tries to discuss things with us and get our feedback but he is acting only in an unofficial capacity in that regard. At my other university, we have 3 supervisors who are all foreigners but we have no contact with anyone above them.
Thank you for conducting this survey!
The main university that I teach at began last year to restructure its scheduling. The logic behind the shifting is not clear.
We have gone from a regular Spring and Fall term load, to a lopsided load, where the Spring term is light, while the Fall term is heavy.
One slightly good outcome of this, is that now a senior native professor will mail the part-timers to ask for the days we are free, (or what days/times that we will take classes for the next year). The down side is that the de-partment does not really negotiate with the part-timers, but rather mix and matches from the times we have made available. So far, since some part-timers have been given only one class to teach for one day, (instead of 2 or 3 in a row), it is clear that it has not even been taken into con-sideration that some of us must travel in from ***** pref., (2 hours one-way).
Such scheduling means that, grading loads will be extra heavy in the Fall. It also means that, if we have no classes during Spring term, then we also do not receive teacher privilege of campus/library access, and thus it is harder to use the light Spring term to conduct research. Furthermore, it is difficult to enter into gainful employ-ment for only half the year during the open schedule times in the Spring, as we must allow for the heavier load in the Fall.
I did try to ask for clarification about the scheduling, and inquire as to whether block schedules and year-long slots could be considered for all part-timers. I was told by the senior tenured professor in charge that they had no say in the matter as the lop-sided scheduling was being driven by the administration. Hard to believe that one.
There is no curriculum here; the upside is that I can teach and try whatever I am researching in the effort to improve my own teaching. The downside is that this seems to encourage a lack of communication between instructors who just do their own thing and leave. Though I believe that too much control from above can be a bad thing, it is also true that there is no guidance for newcomers here. There is not even a skeleton curricu-lum which hints at where students are believed to begin from and where it is believed they should end up after the 2 years of required courses study. I am teaching without any knowledge of what has previously been taught to these students and without a clear direction of what I could be preparing them for.
Best of luck to us all in this.

University Education

Team Teaching (Talked About....but never tried)
No communication between the various part-time teachers
While I enjoy teaching to a great extent, there are so many things wrong with the university system in Japan (and I am sure that things are not much better in my native country, the USA as well, since US universities also ex-ploit part time teachers as well), it's hard to know where to start.
My main complaint is that, in general (a few excep-tions) I subsidize the full time professors who teach few coma and make no effort to communicate their pedagogi-cal goals to part time teachers.
The university system seems disorganized. Professors and administrators have no idea what part-timers do. No objectives are set, there's no curriculum, and there's no way to evaluate performance . . . . except by asking the students.
I have a background in the humanities as well as in natural sciences, and according expectations. I speak four languages, and four others I read gainfully and with speed. Library facilities in this country, and simply availabil-ity of books, in any language, are abysmal, inter-library loan systems ditto. Scholarly, and all other, communica-tion between colleagues is nil. Students' attitudes, as well as Japanese professors' scholarly aptitudes, are far below worldwide par.
The university system and its facilities appear to be designed for minimal output of high class education and scholarship. Professors are forced to spent their energy in endless conferences. Students don't study, professors don't write. Never and in no other country have I been pressed so hard for time to do research, never and no-where else has teaching left me feeling as vampirized and exhausted as in Japan. Having no time to do research, and in view of the shockingly low quality of education, inter-national outlook, life in general, air and water in particular, one might be inclined to consider hijokin-work in Japan, as well as living here, as a waste of time and energy.
As an English teacher I think universities should put more emphasis on foreign languages, not only in the 1st and 2nd years but also in 3rd and 4th years and at graduate school. Content courses should also be taught in foreign languages. Only in that way can Japan become an interna-tional society.
I think many of the problems stem from fundamental disagreements about what universities are and how they should operate- Japanese universities are quite different from Western ones and this causes a lot of confusion.
I suspect that Japanese administrators don't under-stand why foreign teachers are unhappy or how to deal with the problems that arise. I suspect the desire to use part-time employees or short-term contracts is motivated partly by the problems that have arisen with full-time employees (but to a large degree by free-market economic thought).
From the perspective of administrators, foreigners are given preferential treatment and aren't expected to par-ticipate in the full workload that professors (in Japan or Western universities) have- they are teachers, not profes-sors. Many full-time foreign teachers take advantage of this and do virtually no work because they have never been expected to, or in many cases aren't qualified for the position they have taken. They assume, incorrectly, that their only responsibility is to teach a handful of classes, not to take initiative in conducting research or imple-menting new policies.
As far as the administrators go, they view foreigners as being merely teachers, and the teachers live up to this view by refusing to do anything beyond the bare minimum of work, their 'research' days are used to work part-time at other universities and there is great resentment when they are asked to conduct research. The administrators assume that foreign teachers have implicitly agreed to accept a temporary worker status in exchange for this lower workload, and teachers are blissfully unaware of what is expected of a tenured professor at a university.
Students also suffer from overwork of part-time lec-turers as full-timers sit in 'committee meetings', and part-timers take up the teaching load, part-timers (pt) must find between 15-20 coma a week to make a living and therefore can not adequately prepare nor evaluate students. My students take notice of this and ask for teacher evalua-tions of their assignments but I have no time to do that and therefore must utilize 'peer review' of their assignments (which has a place but should no be the only means of feedback for the students).
These working conditions are actually affecting the entire educational system in Japan and impacting upon the social landscape of Japan. A whole generation of Japanese are getting an inferior education and it is affecting society.
Thank you for doing this research. Hopefully some things will change for the better because of it, especially as the working situation for both part-timers and full-timers seems to be getting worse.
One problem with having to teach many koma to en-sure a healthy income is that I am unable to help my stu-dents outside of class. With email this becomes possible, but invariably increases the time spent on work outside of school: exchanging emails takes more time than a brief one-on-one discussion. It particularly irks me when stu-dents come to me for assistance because the full-time staff 'doesn't have the time' to help them. I do my best to as-sist as I feel sorry for the student who is looking for help but gets rejected by the staff that is getting paid to help them. Unfortunately I cannot be of as much help as I'd like to because of all the work.
Some universities, such as *****, pay well and treat teachers pretty well, but are ripping the students off since the students themselves DO NOT BELONG in university since their academic levels are so appallingly low.
I want to single out ***** University as a school which is especially unresponsive to the feelings of both full and part time English instructors. I believe the cur-riculum and rough treatment of instructors is a direct re-sult of dictatorial attitudes of the recently elected president of that institution (people evidently voted for him simply and solely because he was against merging with ***** University). I might add that I felt compelled to quit the school after 9 years, because I so strongly disagreed with the callous way we teachers were being treated and the insensitive curriculum that was forcibly installed. Anyone who disagreed with the curriculum was coldly told to take it or leave it. I lost all respect for the institution. Now, all incoming students are required to take a TOEIC course for first year English and buy, not one, but two heavy TOEIC textbooks. I heard from one full time Japanese professor that the impetus for the president's TOEIC classes was to try and get funding from ***** (as opposed to creating a better educational environment for the students, as should have been the case). Class size was set at about 40, but I have heard that some teachers have substantially more. Even the three full time professors who required me to take an interview for the 'new' position (they subse-quently offered me a job which I later turned down) ad-mitted during the interview that they also disagreed with the TOEIC curriculum, but could do nothing about it be-cause it was the president's wish and they could not go against him.

Union

We need to get more teachers unionised. Can't you lower 30000 yen membership. Feel well done getting questions asked in parliament.
Can you imagine a nation-wide strike?
It's gone past a point where teachers are appropriately qualified for their work, to teachers being over-qualified.
Generally, eikaiwa is the bottom of the barrel for working conditions in Japan. But even there, some of my company classes pay more than university classes for actual contact time. (The eikaiwa pays for travel time.) Which means that the situation for most part-time lectur-ers has become truly abysmal.
Engineers, software writers, and other highly special-ized technicians tend not to form unions. They are not easily replaceable, so they don't need to. Languages teachers and teachers in general are very replaceable. The quality of instruction may suffer severely but as far as school administrators are concerned, the 'machine' is still working. This is why they need to wake up and join the unions, or else continue to out butt kiss each other to the bottom of the barrel.
I DO NOT wish to publicly criticize any union mem-ber or leader - I don't hear what is happening in talks with school management/president since I am no longer on Wednesdays - their Negotiations day-there. Union leaders are hard working and good people. I lack Nihongo Reading skills - probably they are feeling us in Nihongo, which I don't ?
I phoned the ***** Union earlier this year for advice and was answered by an American. He provided little help and was more concerned with repeatedly stating that any union help would require myself and others from my uni-versity to volunteer their free time to man the phones and attend union events. What the *?!? are the union mem-bership payments for???
Personally, I am very happy in my position as a full time lecturer, but I know a lot of people has very big problems and I would be very happy to help them.
I don't understand very well the organisation of the different labor unions, I have never been contacted and explained.
I've never been contacted by a teacher's labor union regarding my part-time work, nor have my rights and ob-ligations as a resident of Japan been fully explained to me at any level--employer, city, or national government.
Most importantly, however, I also think that the fact that fulltime professors can be members of a hijokin ku-miai is bad policy and self defeating:
1. They will not support any actions as they do not need it;
2. Sennin are the ones with whom we have most of our daily problems and and the ones who have no respect for part-timers;
3. If they feel so strongly about the issue of hijoukin, they should be fighting to have the hijokin lecturers ac-cepted in the union of their own university like the other part-time staff, and they should fight against the new sho-kutaku positions.
Off my soap box.
Thank you.

This Quesitonnaire

3.7.3 'one examination or report' Does this mean examinations for one class, or for one student?
Thank you for your time and effort in your important work. I will distribute this survey to teachers at my uni-versities.
I was unable to answer 1.5 and 1.6. The survey would not let you choose an answer.
The machine would not list that I have been paying my pension payments for 4.3. I am a full-time teacher at a vocational school, a NPO.
The results that I have recorded for some of these questions do not uniformly apply to all of the institutions I am affiliated with. For example, even though I answered J in question 6.5.1 (I feel the most strongly about this cate-gory), this result only applies to one supervisor at one school. On the other hand, I answered G for 6.5.2 which I don't feel as dissatisfied about, but this problem is mani-fested at almost all of the schools in which I work. There-fore, some of these results could lead to erroneous gener-alizations or assumptions...
Question 1.6 needs a further option: The language policy is to use Japanese, but I can eas-ily obtain information about areas I do not understand.
Or this could be replaced by a statement to the effect of 'I was employed under the condition that I would be able to work with the administrative staff in Japanese�h. Questions 3.7.1 and 3.7.2 are difficult to answer clearly. I picked a figure based on my current practice, but that low figure is the result of many, many hours of preparation done in the past.
Question 6.4 was unsettling in its informativeness. I clicked away happily as I was reading but was left with the sensation that had more boxes been prepared, I'd have clicked more. In other words, I hadn't realised the depth or scope of my dissatisfaction until this survey had vocal-ised it for me. There are likely many more areas of dissat-isfaction.
Question about the survey
about the visa:
should have an option stating simply there is not help (whether needed or not). 2.2 and 2.1 should have included the same figures, especially for the range of 350,000 or simply an option that states 'all my income.'
Thank you for conducting this survey.
In question 3.7.3, I wasn't sure if 'one exam or report'meant one individual exam or one class's worth of ex-ams.....

I don't have any problems

lthough I teach 2 classes per week as a part-time university teacher, perhaps my responses are not so help-ful, as I am also employed as a regular, full-time, full pro-fessor at a private university.
I am, and always have been, satisfied with my condi-tions and treatment as a part-time teacher. I think I have been lucky with the universities because I have obtained the positions after receiving recommendations. However, my full time position has not been so simple because of changing economic climates for the universities and the ambitions and egos of deans and senior faculty members.
I work about six months a year and am paid for 12 months, so that is a good deal. I find myself quite fortu-nate to work in Japan as a part-timer, because it gives me much time to develop other skills, i.e. computer skills, writing skills, etc. especially when I don't work.
Of course, we cannot expect to receive a pension at retirement, so that forces me to plan for my own self-made plan, which is not too much of a problem.
I am quite sure that I can work at my fulltime job till the my retiring age. That was not promised by someone of the university to me, but my classes are included in the curricula till 2015 and there is even the chance for me to get a sabbati-cal. I have also no special problems with the teaching staff at my faculty and they are quite helpful to me. Also at the university I work as a part timer the gakka shunin has guaranteed that all hijokin koshis get the same amount of classes as in the last academical year. So in the moment I have no real complaints.