GREENLIST
OF JAPANESE UNIVERSITIES
The reader of this list is hereby advised that denoted institutions or departments have a progressive attitude towards hiring non-Japanese. As opposed to institutions on the BLACKLIST (click here to go to it), where full-time foreign nationals are treated as part-time staff, GREENLISTers grant tenure regardless of nationality to qualified candidates. We recommend that you as a job applicant apply to these institutions if there is a job opening. Experience dictates that only in places like these will you more likely be treated as equals and colleagues with your Japanese academic counterparts, enjoy more academic freedom (meaning no fear of firing should you speak your mind), and receive the same economic stability as your fellow native contributors to Japanese society.
--Arudou Debito (debito@debito.org)
CLICK
HERE TO
SEE TOKYO CLASSIFIED ARTICLE
ON THE BLACKLIST AND GREENLIST
THE GREENLIST
(click on the university name to scroll down to
the reasons why said institution
qualifies)
GREENLISTING
DETAILS:
NAME
OF UNIVERSITY:
Aichi University of
Education (Kyouiku Daigaku) (National)
LOCATION:
Igayacho Hirosawa 1, Kariya City, Aichi Prefecture
GOOD EMPLOYMENT PRACTICE:
Currently (2007) six out of seven non-Japanese staff are tenured
(without tenure review) with exactly the same duties and salary as
Japanese. Five out of the six tenured non-Japanese have had tenure
from
the first day of their contract.
SOURCE OF INFORMATION:
Oliver Mayer,
Associate Professor at the Department of Foreign Languages at
Aichi
University of Education
NOTE FROM LIST MONITOR: CAUTION:
Aichi
University of Education is also on the
University Blacklist. Click here to see why.
UNIVERSITY:
University of Aizu (Public)
LOCATION: Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima 965-8580 Japan
GOOD EMPLOYMENT PRACTICE: "Under our new
system (began
April 1, 2006), plans are to have tenure awarded after one year of
employment (for both foreign and Japanese employees). The
specific criteria are not yet in place, and the time factor may
change,
but we pride ourselves in treating all faculty alike, as far as
national and international laws allow. The only way to
create
a
genuinely first-class university is to offer equal access and
benefits
to all faculty, irrespective of race or
nationality. All of
our positions (Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor;
Dean;
Director; Chair; and President) are open to anyone -- with English
or
Japanese translation/interpretation support provided to eliminate
any
discrimination that may be caused by requiring mastery of Japanese
or
English. The only requirement is expertise in the
professional
skills required for the job. Nearly all of our jobs are
tenure-track. We only hire part-timers to cover highly
specialized courses we decide to offer or to fill in while we are
in
the process of recruiting a full-time tenure-track employee. All
who
have been here more than one year (currently about 34 out of 35
foreign
employees out of 97 total -- according to my rough count from the
latest faculty directory)"--Thomas Orr.
SOURCE OF INFORMATION: Job
advertisement of September 2006, and email from Thomas Orr,
representative of the university.
UNIVERSITY:
Hiroshima City University (Public)
LOCATION: Hiroshima City
GOOD EMPLOYMENT PRACTICE: "Has a number of
foreigners with tenure"
SOURCE OF INFORMATION: Robyn Lim,
Professor of International Relations, Hiroshima Shudo Dai
UNIVERSITY:
Hiroshima Shudo University (Private)
LOCATION: Hiroshima City
GOOD EMPLOYMENT PRACTICE: Eight non-Japanese
employed with tenure. "
In fact, one (Richard Hoskings) is leaving today after about 20
years.
On full pension,
he has also been made Professor Emeritus."
SOURCE OF INFORMATION: Robyn Lim,
Professor of International Relations, Hiroshima Shudo Dai, and an
emailed
job announcement from faculty member Richard Parker dated
June 2000.
NOTE FROM LIST MONITOR: this university has a
history of firing troublemaking
Japanese tenured faculty (apparently because they were
ideologically
left-leaning).
I don't know what this means for the efficacy of tenure at this
institution, but
as they are in fact tenuring non-Japanese, by Greenlist criteria
this
university
qualifies for inclusion.
NOTE FROM LIST MONITOR: CAUTION:
HIROSHIMA SHUDO UNIVERSITY IS ALSO BLACKLISTED.
Click here to see
why.
UNIVERSITY:
Hokkaido University, Graduate
School of Science (National)
LOCATION: Kita-ku, Sapporo
GOOD EMPLOYMENT PRACTICE: "In April 1998 a
previously contracted Associate
Professor (jokyouju) (Chinese, in Hokudai after 6
(?) years) was tenured.
Before that date, this was not allowed by the University
regulations.
Thus I presume
that the University regulations have been changed."
SOURCE OF INFORMATION: Olaf Karthaus,
former Hokudai Joshu
UNIVERSITY:
Hokkaido University, Research
Institute for Electronic Science (National)
LOCATION: Kita-ku, Sapporo
GOOD EMPLOYMENT PRACTICE: 1992-99 tenured Research
Associate (joshu)
SOURCE OF INFORMATION: Olaf Karthaus,
the former Hokudai Joshu
UNIVERSITY:
Hokkaido Information University (Private)
LOCATION: Ebetsu City, Hokkaido
GOOD EMPLOYMENT PRACTICE: Two non-Japanese
as full-time faculty, all with tenure.
SOURCES OF INFORMATION: Arudou Debito/Dave
Aldwinckle, former non-Japanese tenured associate professor,
and Simon Thollar
and Charles McLarty, tenured associate professors.
UNIVERSITY:
Hokusei Gakuen University, Faculty of Social
Welfare (Fukushi Gakubu) (Private)
LOCATION: Sapporo
GOOD EMPLOYMENT PRACTICE: Does not distinguish
between faculty in terms of
nationality. Four extranationals on staff, all tenured.
SOURCE OF INFORMATION: Tom Goetz,
tenured assistant professor, Hokusei Gakuen
NOTE FROM LIST MONITOR: CAUTION:
HOKUSEI GAKUEN UNIVERSITY IS ALSO BLACKLISTED.
Click here to see why.
NAME
OF
UNIVERSITY: International Christian University (Kokusai
Kirisuto Kyou Daigaku) (Private)
LOCATION: Mitaka, near Tokyo
GOOD EMPLOYMENT PRACTICE: Has many tenured
Non-Japanese faculty, and
also a functional tenure review process for those full-timers on
contracts to eventually become tenured faculty.
SOURCE OF INFORMATION: A personal on-site
investigation by the
Blacklist Moderator, Arudou Debito, who met with several ICU
faculty
and Dean William Steele in April 2007, who substantiated the
above. NOTE:
ICU
was for many years on the Blacklist, but has become the first
university in the decade-long history of the Blacklist to not only
be
Greenlisted, but be permanently removed from the Blacklist as
well.
Congratulations, and thanks for your cooperation.
UNIVERSITY:
Keio University, Faculty of Business and Commerce
(Private)
LOCATION: Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo
GOOD EMPLOYMENT PRACTICE: Offers tenured positions
to foreigners at entry
level.
SOURCE OF INFORMATION: May
1999 job announcement
from the university
NAME OF
UNIVERSITY: Keiwa College (Gakuen) (Private)
LOCATION: Tomizuka, Shibata City, Niigata Prefecture
GOOD EMPLOYMENT PRACTICE: "We have four full-time
(hired in the same
way as Japanese faculty) foreign professors at our school,
including
one Chinese
woman who specialty is economics (not Chinese language)."
SOURCE OF INFORMATION: James B.
Brown, Keiwa College, International Affairs
NOTE FROM LIST MONITOR: CAUTION:
KEIWA COLLEGE IS ALSO BLACKLISTED.
Click here.
SOURCE OF INFORMATION: Stephanie
Houghton, (non-tenured) Kitakyushu University foreign
faculty
member.
NOTE FROM LIST MONITOR: CAUTION:
THIS UNIVERSITY IS ALSO BLACKLISTED.
Click here.
UNIVERSITY:
Kumamoto Gakuen University (Private)
LOCATION: Oe, Kumamoto City, Kyushu
GOOD EMPLOYMENT PRACTICE: Does not distinguish
between faculty in terms of
nationality. 5+ Western and 10+ Korean and Chinese nationals are
tenured.
SOURCE OF INFORMATION: Joseph Tomei,
tenured assistant professor, Kumamoto Gakuen Daigaku
UNIVERSITY:
Sapporo International University
(Kokusai Daigaku) (Private)
LOCATION: Kiyota-ku, Sapporo
GOOD EMPLOYMENT PRACTICE: 8 out of 8 foreign faculty
are tenured with same
pay, benefits and responsibilities as Japanese staff. Foreigners
on
staff are from
US, Canada, Latvia, Poland, France and China. Longest serving
foreigner
is at 9 years
and counting. One foreigner with PhD was hired as full professor.
SOURCE OF INFORMATION: Jerry Halvorsen
of SIU
UNIVERSITY:
Sapporo International University
Junior College (Tanki Daigaku) (Private)
LOCATION: Kiyota-ku, Sapporo
GOOD EMPLOYMENT PRACTICE: 8 out of 8 foreign faculty
are tenured with same
pay, benefits and responsibilities as Japanese staff. Foreigners
on
staff are from
U.S., Canada, Latvia, Poland, France and China. Longest serving
foreigner is at 9
years and counting. One foreigner with PhD was hired as full
professor
SOURCE OF INFORMATION: Jerry Halvorsen
of SIU
Additions to this admittedly short list are more than welcome. Applications available here. We would prefer not to list universities or departments which tenure people for ambiguous reasons while keeping in practice both the gaikokujin kyoushi and gaikokujin kyouin positions (which are, respectively, one- and three-year contracted, not tenured, posts set aside specially for foreigners), since by law it is not necessary for them to institute that anymore.
Again, we request that BLACKLISTed universities do the following:
1) Abolish BOTH the gaikokujin kyoushi and gaikokujin kyouin systems at your school. Even though the systems differ in terms of duration of contract (one and three years, respectively), the fact is that both systems HAVE contracts, denying non-citizens job security, attendance rights at the school kyouin kaigi, and nearly always tenure review. Employing non-citizens as part-timers (hijoukin) is understandable, as Japanese are also employed under that status. However, the distinction between Japanese and non-Japanese employees on the basis of nationality must be stopped, because it is by definition discriminatory, not to mention a remnant of the fukoku kyouhei Meiji Era (click here for substantiation), where foreigners were hired, leeched upon for information, and sent "home".
2) Establish a clear system of tenure review for non-citizen faculty, with a clear time period and objective evaluative criteria on paper (not via, say, patronage or sychophancy of the gakuchou). Recommended is an "up-or-out" system, where after five to seven years, the candidate is told clearly whether or not s/he will be granted tenure at the institution. This may be a double-edged sword, but it is far preferable to perpetual contract renewal and summary dismissal of said employee after decades of service--the common practice these days.
3) Grant tenure to current non-Japanese upon first hiring, or retroactive to current service. Quite simply, universities with non-Japanese faculty should hire them the same as regular Japanese faculty. Tenure them. You will be blacklisted until you do.
In sum, the choice of under what status to employ non-citizens is up to the universities. The GREENLISTed universities have made their choice clear.
GREENLISTers, thank you for showing concern for the welfare of your non-Japanese employees by not setting up employment systems which segregate them. In the end, it will be your universities which stand to benefit from having long-term, dedicated teachers.
If you're still doubting the veracity of the information on the Blacklist or Greenlist of Japanese Universities, please visit some links to some information websites, completely independent of this site, and check out recent job conditions for yourself. You might have to dig around a bit.
(Last updated August 2007)
(Sorry for any delay. The Monitor's hands are full with many
other projects.)
