外国人教員の任用と大学国際化への課題 (赤瀬雅子教授退任記念号)

I have been for 61 years in Osaka, Japan, but I have no citizenship as a taxpayer. We could not apply for recruitment of national and public university after the 2nd World War till 1982, without any legal grounds. After becoming the first formal lecturer of 4th year university in 1963, I organized a civic movement group in October 1972, and struggled against the Japanese Govemment for a long ten years. The Law Concerning the Appointment of Foreign Nationals as Faculty Members at National and Public Universities, in short, Foreign Nationals Lecturer Appointment Law, was established in August 20, 1982. The path of employment was cultivated for foreign nationals, Mr. P. F. Kornicki, U. K. nationals 34 years old, was adopted for the first case at Kyoto University as a two years term staff. After one year, he retumed to U. K., because he was not guaranteed renewal of this assistant professorship. According to the latest statistics compiled by the Ministry of Education and Science in Japan, 693 foreign lecturers were employed full time at 92 national institutions. The top five employers are Tokyo Univ. with 49 lecturers, Tohoku Univ. with 43, Tsukuba Univ. with 38, Kyushu Univ. with 32, Hiroshima Univ. and Kobe Univ. the same with 23. By nationality, faculty members from China and Taiwan topped the list 239, followed by 135 Koreans and 107 Americans. The same members from U. K. 35, and Germany 31, Canada 16, Australia and Russia 15 followed them. It was regrettable that the advisory council failed to pay serious attention to the circumstances of foreign lecturers who were playing an important role not only in international exchanges in the academic field, but in public diplomacy over all. It was also sad that the council made no attempt to solicit the faculty member’s view when it deliberated on the term system. The exclusive or discriminative problem with the employment of foreign faculty members is that many universities force them to accept terms－a practice that has not been applied to their Japanese colleagues. This is evidence of the Japanese exclusive nature and racism. In Japan, there are no laws which ban racism or infringement on the human rights of foreigners. Can we call this an internationalized country ? At present, 57.3 percent, 397 foreign lecturers at national universities work under limited contracts of three years or so, which makes it difficult for them to establish a stable environment for research and education. The best three schools with no term limits, in spite of discriminative circumstances, commendable when the general trend is moving in the other direction, are Tokyo University with 35 such faculty members, Tsukuba University with 28, and Kobe University with 17. The steps taken by the three schools are all aimed at furthering their internationalization in the 21st century. We, the “permanent alien residents” (Teiju Gaikokujin), think, the barrier is not a legal one, the problem is exclusive, islander mentality, common to the Prime Minister and Governor of Tokyo. Japanese academics are too narrow minded except for a conscientious few. The purpose of the Foreign Nationals Lecturers Appointment Law 1982 was to internationalize Japanese universities, to promote international exchange at the academic level, and to protect the human rights of permanent alien residents researchworkers in Japan. I dare to ask all Japanese universities to emulate Tokyo, Tsukuba and Kobe University where foreign lecturers can be appointed for no-term contracts. Japanese academics should first revise their internal regulations to abolish the existing terms of foreign lecturer to put them on the same footing as their Japanese colleagues. Next, the universities should solicit views from those who have worked for terms and see that such views will prove useful in the debate on whether or not to introduce a term system. Japan's prospects as an advanced nation in the 21st century depends upon how well it can rise above the barriers of distorted nationalism to welcome foreigners into its midst. Universities must do the same in order to become truly autonomous and internationally competitive in the pursuit of knowledge. The changes I suggest will no doubt contribute to the internationalization of Japan and the efforts to work out a national vision for the 21st century, not to mention the revitalization of Japanese universities.

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