I have just started my job as an ALT in Japan and want to start researching early how to progress from here. In the long run I ideally want to work in a university as an English or sociology teacher but I may be open to other work. I would of course need to do a Ph.D to get these kinds of jobs in Japan. Unfortunately, while I do hold a masters in Linguistics, I did a coursework only masters so I don’t have a thesis which according to websites I have seen online is a requirement for getting a Ph.D in Japan. Another issue is the cost, while I plan to stay in my position for about 3 years I am not sure if I would be able to save enough money to be able to afford it at this point.
Any advice or relevant stories would be greatly appreciated.
6 comments
1. Learn Japanese
2. Get a phd
3. Get published several times
4. Apply for uni jobs
5. Realize they contract but term and not years.
Edit: I was corrected. Tenure does happen for foreign teachers here. Great news!
Others have posted about this so I’m just copying what they’ve said.
If you already have a linguistics MA, regardless of your lack of thesis, you still qualify to teach at universities in Japan. I think you’re cutting yourself short by taking an ALT position. I would apply to any and all full time uni positions you can now that you’re in Japan. In the meantime, you can boost your resume by working part time at unis until you land a full time job. You can do a distance PhD program part time as well. Unis want a PhD dissertation, not necessarily a master’s thesis. But many unis here will hire with only an MA. Sociology might be more difficult since you only have a linguistics MA. So you would need to decide what you want to teach pronto.
This depends on where you are in Japan.
If we’re talking Tokyo, an MA, 3 publications, and experience (most likely in Japan) is the bare minimum for nearly all positions. Most of the positions that are open to people with these stats are part time/full time adjunct positions and are limited (5 year max) contracts.
If we’re talking countryside or less famous schools, you might be able to sneak into a more permanent position after networking as an adjunct with just an MA.
Tenure in a major city nearly anywhere in Japan is a minimum PhD, 5+ publications, 5+ years relevant experience on top of having connections at the school, a high level of Japanese ability, and the willingness to be “tenure track” for several years.
Recently tenured associate professor here. Here are my two cents if you’re interested.
Of course getting a PhD is ideal, but your MA is already enough to get you a position as a part-time lecturer at many universities. From my experience, most universities are *desperate* for qualified help, so they are willing to overlook a weak resume when hiring part-timers. Once your foot is in the door with a part-time position, work on both your publications (obviously), but more importantly, on your networking with the full-timers. I can’t stress enough that networking is absolutely critical for landing a full time university-level job.
As for your publications, you can essentially “spam” papers in university journals. Most second and third-tier universities do not have a very rigorous peer-reviewing system for their internal journals, so it’s relatively easy to get published. Once you’ve built your CV up with some journal pubs, start working on research that can get you published in more prestigious academic publications. You’ll only need one or two of these on your CV. (These may also help you get into a PhD program down the road, even without your master’s thesis.)
Regarding your papers, co-authorship is better than nothing, but as much as possible try to be a solo author or at least first author. Academic conferences like JALT are also good to participate in (more so for networking, as academic presentations don’t count for much during tenure review.) Each prefecture has a local chapter of JALT–find yours and get to know the regulars there. They will have inside information about job openings at local universities often before the positions are even publicly listed.
With enough pubs under your belt, the time will come when a full-time position opens up. If you’ve got a good reputation with the full-timers and local teacher community, you’ll have as good of a shot as any for the job. Once you finally land a full-time position, it will almost certainly be on a short contract (1~3 years with possible extensions). From here, bust your ass and do whatever you can to secure tenure. Start with finding out the everything you can about that particular university’s review process, including the minimum number of necessary papers (number of solo-authorships, first authorships, etc.). Then you just need to hustle. Publish, apply for grants, get involved with university projects, be active on committees, schmooze with the admin. When the time comes for your tenure review, you want them to recognize how much you’ve contributed to the university and how much of a loss it would be if they cut you loose.
>which according to websites I have seen online is a requirement for getting a Ph.D in Japan
Have you already decided that you want to do a PhD program in Japan? There are plenty of distance-learning programs to choose from.
On topic: if you have a MA already, roll the dice and apply for some part time work. In the meantime, try to get started on some research and publishing and join JALT and take up some volunteer position(s). It’ll look good on your resume.
Short notice, but there is going to be a free presentation/workshop speaking exactly on this topic. It is not one of those “here, this will make your life better” kinda talks, but one quite grounded in reality that discusses the logistics and reality of this career path. No RSVP is needed, and the link to join on that day is in the pdf file.
[https://hosted.jalt.org/chapters/kq/schedule/2022/june/12](https://hosted.jalt.org/chapters/kq/schedule/2022/june/12)
Feel free to share with others you know who might be interested in learning more about this as well 🙂