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University professors

How to become a University Lecturer

Also called: Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor, Junior College Professor, Junior College Associate Professor, Junior College Lecturer

Teaches students in their specialist field at a university or tanki daigaku (junior college), and carries out basic and cutting-edge research.

How to become one

People are usually hired by applying for openings that universities advertise from time to time, for example to fill vacancies, and going through document screening and interviews. To apply you must meet the university's requirements for education (degree), expertise, research record, teaching record and so on. Requirements vary, but tenured positions, with no fixed term and able to work until retirement age, call for a stronger record than fixed-term positions of about three to five years. There are also routes other than open recruitment. Some universities give priority to their own graduate students when hiring research assistants and assistant professors, and some hire highly specialised people from government or business, or writers, artists and athletes, as fixed-term staff. These days, few graduate students are hired into tenured positions straight after finishing their doctorate. Most build their research record through postdoctoral and fixed-term positions while watching for openings at universities in Japan and overseas, aiming for a tenured post. Once hired into a tenured position, people usually move up step by step from their starting rank to (full-time) lecturer, associate professor and professor, and stay until retirement. As well as a passion for scholarship, you need to be good at teaching students and to contribute to running the university.

Ways in

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Questions people ask

How do I become a University Lecturer?

People are usually hired by applying for openings that universities advertise from time to time, for example to fill vacancies, and going through document screening and interviews. To apply you must meet the university's requirements for education (degree), expertise, research record, teaching record and so on. Requirements vary, but tenured positions, with no fixed term and able to work until retirement age, call for a stronger record than fixed-term positions of about three to five years. There are also routes other than open recruitment. Some universities give priority to their own graduate students when hiring research assistants and assistant professors, and some hire highly specialised people from government or business, or writers, artists and athletes, as fixed-term staff. These days, few graduate students are hired into tenured positions straight after finishing their doctorate. Most build their research record through postdoctoral and fixed-term positions while watching for openings at universities in Japan and overseas, aiming for a tenured post. Once hired into a tenured position, people usually move up step by step from their starting rank to (full-time) lecturer, associate professor and professor, and stay until retirement. As well as a passion for scholarship, you need to be good at teaching students and to contribute to running the university.

Do you need a degree to become a University Lecturer?

Usually. In this job's census occupation group, 98% of workers are university graduates.

Will AI change the work of a University Lecturer?

Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.

Sources

独立行政法人労働政策研究・研修機構（JILPT）作成 職業情報データベース 解説系ダウンロードデータ（IPD_DL_description_7_01.xlsx）ver.7.01 職業情報提供サイト（job tag）より2026年10月4日にダウンロード（https://shigoto.mhlw.go.jp/User/download）を加工して作成

独立行政法人労働政策研究・研修機構（JILPT）作成 職業情報データベース 簡易版数値系ダウンロードデータ（IPD_DL_numeric_7_00.xlsx）ver.7.00 職業情報提供サイト（job tag）より2026年10月4日にダウンロード（https://shigoto.mhlw.go.jp/User/download）を加工して作成

Sources: JILPT Occupational Information Database download data via job tag (解説系 ver.7.01 and 簡易版数値系 ver.7.00, downloaded 4 October 2026), processed by Peernovo; MHLW, Basic Survey on Wage Structure 2025; Statistics Bureau of Japan, 2020 Population Census; MEXT, School Basic Survey 2025; MHLW, Employment Referrals for General Workers (Hello Work statistics). Figures processed by Peernovo. English job names, translations and the matching of jobs to statistical groups, schools and degree fields by Peernovo.

Updated 4 October 2026