Should I give up a comfortable adjunct university teaching career for a full-time position at a private university in Japan?
I'm a 44-year-old university English teacher. I'm a permanent resident and have a Japanese wife and a 4-year-old daughter.
I've been teaching part-time at several universities since 2018 (so almost 9 years) and have the strong possibility of moving into a full-time lecturer position at a private university. I'm trying to decide whether the career progression and stability are worth giving up a working situation that I'm currently very comfortable with.
My current situation
- I teach around 17 university classes per week across several universities.
- Annual income is around ¥6 million.
- I have a lot of control over my schedule.
- I have long periods without classes during the university vacations.
- I generally enjoy my current classes, particularly the smaller classes where I can get to know students and have discussions.
- I have established good relationships with the universities where I currently work.
- I'm home relatively early and get plenty of time with my 4-year-old daughter.
- The downside is that I'm still a part-time/adjunct lecturer rather than a full-time faculty member.
- I'm concerned that the longer I remain an adjunct, the more I may become type-cast as one when applying for full-time positions later.
Potential full-time position
- Starting salary appears to be around ¥330,000 per month before tax, which I have been told is quite low.
- Bonuses have historically been equivalent to about four months of base salary per year, although apparently this is no longer explicitly guaranteed according to a former teacher.
- This would make university salary + bonus roughly ¥5.3–5.6 million per year.
- I would be permitted to teach at another university one day per week.
- Four outside classes at ¥10,500 per class × 32 weeks would add about ¥1.34 million, bringing my gross employment income to roughly ¥6.6–6.9 million.
- I would enter Shigaku Kyosai (private-school health insurance/pension/welfare system).
- I'd have my own office (or share one with someone else) and a research budget.
- I'd be expected to publish approximately once a year.
- It would give me genuine full-time university experience, including committee and administrative work, which could strengthen future applications.
- Professionally, I'd be happy to become a full-time university lecturer after having been an ALT for many years.
Things that concern me about the full-time position
- It's initially a 3-year contract. I've been told renewal is normal, but obviously there are no guarantees.
- My biggest fear is giving up my current adjunct positions, having the full-time job not work out after three years, and discovering that my old classes have all been taken up by other teachers.
- The university apparently requires strict 9:00–18:00 attendance Monday–Friday. This also applies during summer and other periods when there are no classes.
- There are initially only 10 days of annual leave, and apparently 5 are designated by the university.
- Committee work is substantial and the amount of Japanese required will probably be beyond my current level of N2, which is admittedly rusty.
- Classes can be quite large: roughly 35–45 students is common, with some required classes reaching around 60. The English ability of the students is apparently extremely mixed. I've been told that pitching classes at the right level can be difficult: make them too difficult and students complain; make them too easy and students may also complain.
- The university's entrance difficulty is fairly low (偏差値 around 37.5–42.5).
- I personally prefer smaller, interactive classes. Large classes of unmotivated students can be quite draining and unrewarding for me.
- There seems to be relatively little student contact outside teaching—no dissertation supervision, etc.
- There are also several large community lectures each year.
Family/lifestyle concern
This may be the biggest issue for me.
My daughter is only 4. In my current situation I get to spend a lot of time with her. With a strict 9–18 job, I'd probably get home around 19:00 most weekdays. I know she'll only be this young once, and I'm worried that I'll trade away several years of family time for a job that I may not actually enjoy as much as my current teaching.
On the other hand...
Part of me really wants the challenge.
Even if I didn't want to stay at this university forever, three years of full-time experience, publications, committee work and improved Japanese might make me considerably more competitive for better full-time university jobs later.
TLDR:
A) Stay in a comfortable adjunct career that I already enjoy, with flexibility and lots of family time, but less security and potentially limited career progression.
B) Or work at a full-time academic position with better institutional benefits, career progression and status, but much less freedom, more responsibility, a teaching environment I may enjoy less, and the risk of having to rebuild my adjunct career if the three-year position doesn't work out.
For people who work/have worked in Japanese universities: which would you choose, and why?
I'm particularly interested in hearing from people who moved from several adjunct positions into a full-time university position—or people who deliberately chose to remain adjuncts.