This story is starting in the middle. The university thinks it is the end, but I think they are mistaken. The beginning of the story goes back many years. A neat start would be nineteen years ago when I began teaching at the university as (a) foreign language assistant professor (外国語・外国事情教員 Gaikokugo gaikokujijou kyouin). I use the word “teaching” advisedly since the job description and regulations specifically stated that research was not part of the job. In addition, the number of hours I was required to teach would leave little time for research.
In fact, the story could go back over twenty years to (when) I started teaching part-time at the university, or (even) twenty-five years to when I started teaching part-time at the university’s junior high school. The teaching part of the story is long and filled with thousands of students going through their compulsory education in the English language at university, and should be the main focus of any story I tell about me and my university. Right now, unfortunately, it is not.
In July 2023, the university told me and the four other foreign language teachers that they would be terminating our jobs at the end of March. The foreign language teachers included three teachers of English, one teacher of Korean, and one teacher of German. They split us up into two meetings to make this announcement: first, they told the English teachers that our contracts would be terminating in March, but that the university was creating five new contracts in a different section, the Global Education and Collaboration Centre. They gave us printed details of the jobs and suggested that if we applied, we would be very strong candidates. The job would be slightly different, with less teaching than the current positions, but would involve more collaboration with other parts of the university and with universities in other countries.
Immediately after the meeting with the three English teachers, the university spoke to the Korean and German teacher(s), and told them that their contracts would finish. The university did not suggest that the Korean or German teachers apply for the new jobs. The new jobs were specifically for native English speakers or equivalent. I was shocked at the treatment of the Korean and German teachers. Simply on the practical side, it seems a good idea to continue teaching languages other than English at a university, and Korean is the language of Japan’s neighbors and a very popular language among Japanese people. On a social level, both teachers had worked at the university for many years and were popular among students. Perhaps most shocking was the distinction they were making between different foreigners.
The teaching positions have some sense of discrimination embedded in them, although less explicit than the “foreign lecturer” positions that they replaced in 2005. The foreign language teachers (外国語・外国事情教員) are non-Japanese, and the university has a special set of employment rules that have been set up for these employees, outside the university’s regular employee rules.
A cynic may see this different treatment between the English and non-English foreign language teachers as a way of dividing the group to mitigate any united response to the termination of the contracts. The result was that three English teachers all applied for the jobs at the Global Education and Collaboration Centre. The application was in September, and through October and November, there were some rumors of other candidates getting interviewed, but we heard nothing.
In December, I wrote to the contact email for the job asking when they might inform us of the results. I stated that I wanted to apply to the university for a permanent position to avoid their termination of my employment. I said that it was getting rather late to do this, but I did not want to cause any problems for the Global Education and Collaboration Centre. They did not reply to the email.
In January, I got an email informing me that I was well qualified but that they had found someone else more suitable for the job. This appears to be untrue since as of April 2024, there are only two people working in the new positions for the Global Education Centre, and they clearly did not find someone more suitable.
In January, I applied for an unlimited term contract based on the 2012 employment law that states an employee who has been working continuously on more than one contract for over five years is entitled to apply for a permanent position. With my application, the union included a letter stating the legal case for this application, as well as social considerations of the university’s treatment of employees and the potential problems for the university’s reputation given actions that may appear to be racist.
A week later, they replied that they needed more time to consider this and would reply on 20th February.
While we were waiting for the reply, they sent another message to the union representative saying that the applications for a job at the Global Education and Collaboration Centre had been reopened for a short period and that they should inform me. The deadline for the application was 22nd February.
I applied, once again, for a job at the Global Education and Collaboration Centre.
On 20th February, the reply came back from the university to say that they were rejecting my application for a permanent position. The next day, 21st February, an email came back from the Global Education and Collaboration Centre to say that I had passed the first vetting stage and they would like to interview me the following week. The interview should include a mock lesson and an explanation of what I could do for Global Education and Collaboration.
I went to the interview, and for most of the question part, they told me that the job would be really difficult for me, although they did concede that I seemed well qualified for teaching.
It took them another two weeks to let me know the result of the interview, which was that they were not going further with my application at that moment.
After 19 years in which the university renewed my contract ten times, on 1st April 2024, they did not renew my contract. I am not sure of the legal position of the university terminating my employment, but we will be finding out in court.
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