Talk:Jissen Women's University

Allegations that Jissen Women’s University is a toxic work environment for professors

A full-time, tenured American ex-professor, whose initials are “S.M.,” has made a number of allegations about Jissen Women’s University. Just for the record, S.M. was a professor working in the Department of English Communication in Jissen Women’s University Junior College. They started out at Hino Campus and moved to Shibuya Campus in 2014 due to the junior college’s relocation. They have worked at this department for 11-12 years. The allegations are as follows.

• S.M.’s Japanese colleague in the Department of English Communication (DoEC), a “Prof. Y,” died in an intentional car crash just one month after taking a medical leave of absence from the school for a year. The department and the school decided to cover it up by telling the students that Prof. Y would not be coming back to the school because of an automobile accident. S.M. told their class that, but then burst into tears in front of the students and mentioned the possibility of suicide. About one week later, S.M. was called into the Dean’s office to get yelled at for having the gall to mention that word to the students when no such “proof” was found. That is odd, because Prof. Y had confided in S.M. about their problems (not to mention showing proof) and S.M. had reported the conversation to the Assistant Dean out of concern.
• S.M. can speak Japanese but cannot read Japanese. They tried to get someone to read them their rights as an employee, but no one in Jissen Women’s University or Jissen Women’s University Junior College would lift a finger to help them. They also prohibited the use of an outside translator for help with those documents on the grounds that it might reveal “company secrets.” So S.M. turned to a Japanese friend outside the schools to read the documents to them. It turned out that what the DoEC and the school advertises on their homepages is much different from the by-the-book, copy-pasted curriculum that they actually follow. Needless to say, everyone in the DoEC was furious when they found out that S.M. defied their prohibition. Oh, and it must be understood that refusing to help a colleague to translate documents regarding their rights as an employee is not only a violation of the Japanese labour law, but also morally repugnant.
• S.M. had also seen disturbing materials left on the copy machine. The materials were right-wing propaganda that essentially claimed that Western culture was religious fundamentalism compared to the “humanistically enlightened” Japanese. S.M.’s colleagues in the DoEC were the ones making copies of this propaganda.
• When Jissen Women's University Junior College relocated to Shibuya Campus, S.M. personally witnessed volumes of Shakespeare, Dickens, Hawthorne, Plato, Russell, and thousands of other books in Japanese from the school's library being unceremoniously fed into a garbage truck, shredding and compressing those works into easily disposable trash. The thing is that the junior college could have simply donated all those books to the communities and schools that had been devastated in the Great Tōhoku Earthquake, but they didn't. This seems to indicate tunnel vision and a lack of compassion as well as a selfish and wasteful mentality.
• The DoEC prohibited S.M. from conducting community outreach work or volunteer activities (even with other departments at the same school or with students in S.M.’s own classes) without permission from their Department’s Japanese colleagues. These colleagues essentially tried to micromanage S.M.’s classes. Considering that the activities involved helping the homeless and cleaning up the mess at Fukushima, one gets the impression that said colleagues resented S.M. for displaying more concern, compassion and empathy for the less fortunate than the rest of them. In addition, the prohibition applied only to S.M. and not to the Japanese colleagues.
• Years ago, S.M. had taken on the role of a speech coach of each year’s contestant in the Tokyo Jr. College English Speech Contest as a volunteer duty. After about twelve years or so, S.M. made a written request to have this volunteer duty redesignated as one of their committee responsibilities. The good news was that the request was granted. The bad news was that authority was immediately and opportunistically handed over to a Japanese colleague in charge of a new Education Committee, which S.M. was not invited to join. Before this, S.M. was a member of the Tokyo Jr. College English Speech Contest Committee, and had all the access, direct communication and time needed to prepare multiple students for the contest. Unfortunately, once this duty became official, S.M. had to ask permission from that Japanese superior to volunteer, and it was only under his auspices, at his convenience and on his terms that S.M. was allowed to do the same work that was previously done. Not only that, but the new Education Committee could not be bothered to inform S.M. of the theme and schedule of the speech contest in a timely manner. In other words, the committee withheld information that S.M. needed to do their job, which might constitute a violation of Japanese labour law.
• After refusing to comply with the DoEC’s prohibition, the Dean and the Assistant Dean called S.M. into a conference and presented a document. This document would require S.M. to comply with the DoEC’s prohibition and obey orders from their colleagues. They said if the document was not signed, S.M. would have to forfeit an impending one-year research sabbatical to Cambodia. However, if that document was signed, S.M. would lose the right to help one seminar student prepare for the upcoming Tokyo Jr. College English Speech Contest (since this was being done on a voluntary basis, and the department was cracking down on volunteer activities). They even admitted to S.M. that no other faculty member had been asked to sign such a document prior to taking a research sabbatical in the entire history of the school. S.M. tried to make a bargain, in which the document would be signed in return for either the Dean or the Assistant Dean taking their place and helping the student with the speech contest. The Dean and the Assistant said absolutely nothing, which could only be construed as a “No.” As a result, S.M. decided not to sign the document.
• Thanks to S.M.’s help, the student was able to make her speech at the contest about being a survivor of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami as well as the real meaning of family and friends. This speech contest was only meant to be a display of English skills and rote memorized performances, not a real speech. What ended up happening was that the judges compromised by giving her second place in the contest and the school’s administration used her result as a photo op for marketing purposes. Sadly, S.M. was not given any credit for all the hard work that they put into it. In fact, S.M. was told shortly after the contest and photo op that for going against the DoEC’s orders and not signing that document, they had forfeited that research sabbatical and would be relieved of all teaching duties the following year.
• S.M. took a medical leave of absence, joined a union and resigned a “tenured” position (it seems that it happened sometime between 2016 and 2017. Unfortunately, they have had great difficulty finding work elsewhere in Japan. That may be because prospective employers run a reference check with previous employers and the previous employers reveal that job applicants like S.M. are troublemakers.
• According to S.M., their position was the only foreign full-time tenured position in the entire school. After their resignation, that position had been eliminated. There are now only part-time, non-tenured foreign faculty members in the school. This is also the same school that claims that their ideas represent “diversity.” It is S.M.’s belief that the school wanted them to resign so that they could get rid of tenured positions and save money, and to that end they specifically targeted them for bullying and harassment. It is also S.M.'s conclusion that the administration and teachers of Jissen Women's University (and by extension, Jissen Women's University Junior College) do not actually care about helping women become independent, compassionate, and critical thinking members of society. Instead, the administration and teachers only care about turning the biggest possible profit at everyone's expense.

In case you are wondering, S.M. has talked about this and other topics on Quora (https://www.quora.com/What-are-you-banned-from-Why/answer/Steven-Steve-F-Martin and https://www.quora.com/How-do-different-cultures-regard-taking-ones-life-In-America-it-is-seen-as-shocking-and-shameful-The-Japanese-et-al-have-a-different-attitude/answer/Steven-Steve-F-Martin), YouTube (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=E2GtYnQzi2w - comments section), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/NipponnoSteve/), Medium (comments section), Japan Today (https://japantoday.com/member/steve-martin - comment history) and Substack (https://steven45.substack.com/). Of course, those are not examples of reliable sources. A story like this needs reliable sources to back it up.

As a case in point, S.M. tried to post information about the working conditions on the “Jissen Women’s University” page several times, but it was removed every time precisely because S.M. did not back it up with any sources, let alone reliable ones.

That is why I want to ask this question: are there any reliable sources that show that Jissen Women’s University is a toxic work environment for professors? Wise Bridges Fool Walls (talk) 19:16, 12 September 2022 (UTC)

Here is some more information that I would like to add.

• Prof. Y's family did not invite any faculty members to her funeral, so the faculty members held their own impromptu funeral "ceremony" without inviting any members of her family. The word "ceremony" is in quotes, because the DoEC chairperson was the main speaker and she clearly enjoyed the opportunity to address the Junior College with a big smile on her face. The head of the board of directors even smiled and winked at S.M. during the "eulogy." There were no signs of grief or sadness from the faculty members. On the contrary, they seemed to be glad, happy and joyful over Prof. Y's death. In addition, they displayed callousness and distancing towards Prof. Y's death. With that kind of attitude, it is no wonder that her family did not invite any of them to her funeral.
• S.M. was traumatized by Prof. Y's death and needed to see a psychiatrist. In the past, they had counselled students in the past regarding personal problems, and had tried suggesting that school psychiatric counselors be introduced along with teachers to the incoming freshmen as an integral and necessary part of the education community, but the University and Junior College refused to listen. When they told the DoEC chairperson that they needed to see a school psychiatrist, she told them not let anyone know that they had asked to do so because that would damage their reputation as a teacher. Yes, stigma against mental illness is strong in Japan, but one must wonder if the faculty members are against the idea of an employee telling an outsider all about the things that go on in the University and Junior College.
• One member of the board of directors at Jissen was also a member of the board of directors at Hino Motors. When one considers that Jissen prohibited S.M. from engaging in community volunteer activities and that Hino Motors welcomed S.M.’s volunteer work with their in-house high school students, it is quite odd that the aforementioned member of the board of directors experienced no cognitive dissonance whatsoever.
• Not only was S.M. on the board of directors, but they were also one of the vice-presidents of Hino International Friendship Association (HIFA), an non-profit organization whose purpose is to help foreign citizens adapt to Japan. However, S.M. received no show of solidarity or support from HIFA against Jissen. In fact, the president of HIFA blithely dismissed S.M.’s claims of harassment, saying that the head of Jissen’s board of directors is “a nice guy” (that so-called “nice guy” is the same man who not only smiled and winked at S.M. during Prof. Y’s “eulogy,” but also told S.M. that as punishment for refusing to follow all the rules, they would receive no classes the following academic year, but since they were a tenured 'professor', they were required to show up at their office and wait for orders), and the other vice-president joined in on the conversation to say that HIFA has had no problems with Jissen before. Needless to say, S.M. decided to resign from Jissen and HIFA right then and there.

Wise Bridges Fool Walls (talk) 01:51, 30 November 2022 (UTC)