The temp-worker era is gaining steam in the education sector. Education ministry rules allowing (and even encouraging) colleges and universities to hire ninkitsuki instructors on a three- or five-year basis have simply allowed the trend of hiring teachers on a "limited-term contract" to become more or less a permanent fixture of university hiring practices.
Additionally, while such positions are beginning to appear for Japanese as well as for foreigners, ninkitsuki-limited-term contract positions are nearly always earmarked for so-called native English speakers, enabling universities to openly discriminate in their hiring.
These limited-term contract positions are now practically the only teaching posts available to foreigners, and there is no possibility of renewal or re-contracting.
As for part-time instructors, some universities have entirely stopped hiring new instructors, and have even reduced the number of classes per day from three to two for current part-time instructors.
It is nearly impossible for part-time instructors to gain full-time status at universities in Japan, particularly since the 60-year-old men still in charge of the hiring process wield their baby-boomer power without fear of the law.
Maybe the increase in part-time instructors is inevitable as the number of high school students decreases in Japan. Of course, universities could attempt to woo potential "nontraditional" students such as salaried workers and retirees, but with no pressure from the Japanese government to stop illegal and discriminatory hirings, why should universities care? After all, nobody's going to come to the legal defense of a foreigner in court against a temp agency like a Japanese university.
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