Hi, my mother just turned 60 and has officially retired from work as a Professor. I’m currently living in Hyogo, and we’ve had a few discussions about the prospect of her coming over here. If she were to come here, she has a desire to continue teaching in higher education (No Japanese skills whatsoever, taught Engineering her whole life)
Just wanted to ask the community whether if anyone experienced or heard about other people being hired in Japan in their 60s in the higher education field? Cheers!
6 comments
Being honest, it’s going to be *really* hard for her to find a job.
Two reasons:
1. She doesn’t speak Japanese. There are not a huge number of English-speaking professorships available in Japan. So the pool of potential openings is rather small.
2. Age. Mandatory retirement is very much a thing in Japan. While they recently passed a law theoretically raising it to 70 years, it hasn’t fully taken effect yet, so a lot of places still set mandatory retirement between 60 and 65.
Given the combination of those two things, it’s going to end up being really hard to find a job. With the limited number of openings most universities are going to look towards younger applicants who will be with the university longer.
Another thing to consider: There is no Retirement visa in Japan. The only way she could live in Japan permanently would be to achieve Permanent Residence, which requires you to live/work in Japan for 10 years. (Aside from a few exceptional circumstances that she is unlikely to qualify for)
Given that she is *already* 60, it will be almost impossible for her to achieve PR before she hits mandatory retirement age, even with the new laws. So you have to consider if it’s worth her moving to Japan now, despite the fact that she will most likely have to return home when retirement rolls around.
She should look into opportunities in education with Department of Defense. There are higher education jobs on many bases and if she doesn’t mind going into primary education she could teach at DODEA schools.
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Do you have kids and qualify for HSFP? You can bring over elderly parents on that visa under certain parameters:
> In the current system, the parents of foreign nationals who reside in Japan with a work-related status of residence cannot be accepted into the country. However, the parents of highly skilled foreign professional, or their spouse’s parents (including adoptive parents), can enter and reside in Japan under the following circumstances.
> â‘ Assist in caring for the child (including adopted children) of a highly skilled foreign professional or the child of the spouse of a highly skilled professional who is no more than seven years in age; or
> â‘¡assist in caring for a highly skilled foreign professional who is pregnant or the pregnant spouse of a highly skilled foreign professional.
> Permission to bring parents under certain set of conditions
> Major requirements
> â‘ The highly skilled foreign professional’s household* yearly income must be 8 million yen or higher
> * Refers to the combined total of the highly skilled foreign professional’s and their spouse’s annual income.
> â‘¡ Must live with the highly skilled foreign professional
> â‘¢ Must be the highly skilled foreign professional’s parents or their spouse’s parents
I know you said higher education, but would your mother consider applying for the JET Programme? To at least get her foot in the door? Our newest ALT is 61, so maybe it’s worth a shot if other avenues don’t work out. Not sure if they’d grant Hyogo as the placement, but because it’s biological family there (rather than friends/host family), I would assume there’d be a higher chance.
If she is still active in research, she should reach out to her Japanese contemporaries in her field. Japanese universities, companies, research institutes and government agencies have a huge variety of research-focused fellowships, sabbatical programs, and things of that nature. The program formalizes the relationship with the host institution, which would put her on a fairly straightforward track for a Professor visa. These programs are the main mechanism through which Japan participates in international research.
Most of the opportunities focus on early-career researchers, but there are options specifically for emeritus professors. If she finds someone she’d like to work with, and they are motivated to work with her, then there will be options. They might not be very lucrative, though.