Expats face job losses

Japan's foreign university lecturerships are being phased out but Japanese lecturers can now take industrial action as a consequence of the denationalisation of universities and their transformation into national university corporations (NUCs).

The reforms give university administrations wider discretionary powers over staff management, teaching and research assignments, programme and curriculum development, and more say in the allocation of money for teaching, research and community services. Faculty lost their civil-servant status, eliminating a clear guarantee of job protection.

Now that faculty are no longer civil servants precluded from taking strike action, the question is whether the unions will resort to industrial action if management-employee relations break down because of disputes over contracts, changes to teaching duties, job cuts and reductions in pay and benefits.

Foreign lectureships are being phased out and restructured, but with little agreement or top-down guidance at many former national universities on how to renew or restructure the system.

In April, Kobe University, adopted a special contract educator system for its foreign lecturers, limiting them to a three-year contract with no automatic renewal - though they will be allowed to try for the position.

It is only a matter of time before a NUC tries to force at least some of Japanese faculty into similar special contracts with three or five-year limits.