초록
I have lived for 62 years as a taxpayer in Osaka, Japan, but I have no citizens
hip. As a foreigner, it was not possible to apply for enrollment at a national o
r public university after the 2nd World War till 1982, even though no legal grou
nds forbade it. After becoming the fi rst formal lecturer in a 4th year universi
ty in 1963, I organized a civic movement group in October 1972, and struggled ag
ainst the Japanese Government for a long ten years.
The Law Concerning the Appointment of Foreign Nationals as Faculty Members at Na
tional and Public Universities was established in August 20, 1982. The path of e
mployment was cultivated for foreign nationals.
P. F. Kornicki, a U.K. national, 34 years old, become the fi rst appointment at
Kyoto University. He was given a 2 year appointment but after one year, he retur
ned to U.K., because he was not guaranteed renewal of this assistant professorsh
ip.
According to the latest statistics compiled by the Ministry of Education and Sci
ence, 717 foreign lecturers were employed full time at 108 national institution
s in Japan. The top fi ve employers are Tokyo Univ. with 49 lecturers, Tohoku Un
iv. with 48, Kyushu Univ. with 33, Tsukuba Univ. with 31, and Kyoto Univ. with 2
2. By nationality, faculty members from China and Taiwan topped the list with 24
6, followed by 153 Koreans and 110 Americans. From the U.K. there were 39, Germa
ny 34, Australia 19, Canada 16, and France 12.
It was regrettable that the advisory council failed to pay serious attention to
the circumstances of foreign lectures who were playing an important role, not on
ly in international exchanges in the academic field, but in public diplomacy ove
r all. It was also said that the council made no attempt to solicit foreign facu
lty member’s view when it deliberated on the fi xed term system.
An exclusive or discriminative problem occurring with employment of foreign facu
lty members is that many universities force them to accept fixed term appointmen
ts ? a practice that has not been applied to their Japanese colleagues. This ca
n be seen as evidence of the exclusive nature and racism in Japanese society. I
n Japan, there are no laws which ban racism or infringement of human rights of f
oreigners. Can we call this an internation -alized country?
At present, 377 (52.6%) foreign lecturers at national universities work on contr
acts limited to three years or so, which makes it diffi cult for them to establi
sh a stable environment for research and education.
In spite of discriminative circumstances, and commendable when the general tren
d is moving in the other direction, the best three schools with no term limits a
re Tokyo University with 36 such faculty members, Tsukuba University with 26, an
d Tohoku University with 20. The steps taken by these three schools are all aime
d at furthering their internation -alization in the 21st century.
We, the “permanent alien residents” (Teiju Gaikokujin), think that the barrie
r is not a legal one, rather it is an exclusive, islander mentality, common to t
he Prime Minister and Governor of Tokyo. Japanese academics are too narrow minde
d except for a conscientious minority.
The purpose of the Foreign Nationals Lecturers Appointment Law 1982 was to inter
nationalize Japanese universities, to promote international exchange at the acad
emic level, and to protect the human rights of permanent alien residents researc
h workers in Japan.
I dare to ask all Japanese universities to emulate Tokyo, Tsukuba, Tohoku and Ko
be University where foreign lecturers can be appointed for contracts that are no
t term-limited. Japanese academics should first revise their internal regulation
s to abolish the fixed terms for existing foreign lecturers so as to put them o
n the same footing as their Japanese colleagues. Next, the un -iversities shoul
d solicit views from those who have worked for fixed terms and see whether thei
r views will prove useful in the debate on whether or not to introduce a fixed t
erm syst
pp.7~44 (38pages)