The Language Teacher

JALT's Response to Monbusho

edited by Bill Lee

In 1992, the Ministry of Education (Monbusho) telephoned a directive to national universities concerning the future employment of foreign lecturers. Shortly thereafter, a large number of senior foreign faculty contracts were not routinely renewed, and the teachers summarily dismissed. Following inquiries from the teachers themselves, embassies, press, and Japanese Diet members, in June 1996, Monbusho made public a clarification which had earlier been issued to college presidents and other officials: (1) For budgetary reasons, universities are to hire the younger among qualified applicants. (2) Contract plans for current teachers are to be based not on age alone, but on comprehensive evaluation, including teaching, research, and so forth. [Despite this proviso, senior teachers have been terminated after the clarification was issued.] (3) [Renewable] contracts may not exceed one year. (4) At the time of initial hiring, both the content of the contract and the total intended term of employment are to be made clear to the candidate.

Recently the Ad Hoc Committee on Faculty Terminations, ratified by the JALT Executive Board, and chaired by Thom Simmons, drafted a response to the Monbusho directive and its update. This response is to be presented to the 1996 JALT Membership Annual General Meeting (AGM), in partial response to last year's AGM call for a JALT policy on terminations. This document and its translation have undergone several revisions and will no doubt undergo more before and during the AGM. What follows is a summary of some main points that members will probably be asked to consider and debate:

Members of JALT express the following concerns:

Universities may continue to interpret the 1992 directive as Monbusho's desire to eliminate positions for older faculty, as such terminations continue despite the recent clarification, with accompanying insecurity for teachers at private as well as public universities.
Newly available positions tend to be short-term, and unavailable to well-qualified senior faculty.
Many of the recently dismissed are now suffering real hardship after many years of serving their community, and with loss of pension benefits face an even bleaker future. Moreover, no due cause for dismissal has been offered, even after years of renewed contracts, a practice which is illegal in the private sector. Such policies run counter to the spirit of the Japanese Constitution, the Labor Standards Law, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The loss of senior faculty deprives Japanese students of the teaching and research experience to assist their research and publication efforts, and it deprives universities of stable, mature international faculty.

We therefore respectfully hope that such an abrupt change of policy can be softened and made more gradual for those senior teachers who have suddenly borne its full force. We also hope that Monbusho will express support for a non-discriminatory labor policy consistent with the government's and the ministry's well-known commitment to internationalization, and a labor policy that opposes termination without cause, in line with the International Treaty on Human Rights, the Constitution, and the Labor Standards Law. We also hope for the opportunity to communicate and work with the government on this and other issues of quality education.