Thousands of researchers at Japanese institutes and universities may see their jobs disappear by next spring in the wake of labor legislation adopted a decade ago.
Thousands of researchers at Japanese institutes and universities may see their jobs disappear by next spring, an unintended result of labor legislation adopted a decade ago that gave researchers who have worked under fixed-term contracts for more than 10 years the right to permanent employment. Japan’s science system has many such temporary workers—but rather than fully hire them, institutions are terminating their jobs.
Japan’s R&D funding grew rapidly in the 1990s and 2000s, but many newly recruited researchers were hired under fixed-term contracts, which offer lower pay, fewer benefits, and less job security than permanent jobs. The scheme gave research institutions more flexibility—but in practice, most fixed-term contracts were renewed indefinitely.
Legislation adopted in 2013 and amended in 2014 gave most contract employees the right to request permanent employment after working for the same employer for 5 years; for researchers, the term was set to 10 years. Many employers have responded by making sure contract workers never accumulate that duration of service.
Applying an employment policy adopted in 2016 retroactively to those who have already worked under contract for 10 or more years, is “illegal,” says Yasuyuki Kanai, the executive committee chairman of RIKEN’s labor union. He says the researchers have a right to continued employment. Unhappy with the way RIKEN negotiated, the union on 20 June formally asked a governmental labor relations board to order the agency to bargain in good faith.
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