“He said, she said”

In 2015, only 23.2% of the 182,723 full-time and 29.8% of the 196,623 part-time positions in Japanese universities were held by women. Non-Japanese teachers ¹ comprised 5.4% of all university teachers and 32% of these were foreign women. ² One common explanation for this 3 to 1 gender imbalance is that there are more western men than western women in Japan, particularly those married to Japanese nationals, who become university English teachers. However, there are in fact many western women, also with Japanese spouses, who wish to forge careers in Japanese higher education. ³