October 3, 2025

Two French teachers at the over 100-year-old language school, Athenee Francais (Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward), on October 2 at a press conference in the Labor Ministry office building announced that they recently launched a legal battle seeking to annul the school’s unfair dismissals.

The two, who are members of the Athenee Francais labor union, worked for more than five years as fixed-term lecturers with contracts ranging from 3 to 12 months. Based on relevant labor laws, they applied for paid leave and the conversion of their fixed-term contracts to open-ended ones. However, Athenee Francais rejected their applications by saying that they are independent contractors doing an outsourced job of teaching French. Furthermore, the school dismissed them on the grounds of the expiration of their contracts.

At the press conference, one of the two, who worked for more than ten years, said that he/she has never been told by the school that he/she is an outsourcing contractor, and added, “I got fired simply because I requested a day off. This doesn’t make sense to me.”

Lawyer Umeda Kazutaka, who is a member of the two lecturers’ legal team, pointed out that Athenee Francais treated them as “employees” on documents required by laws, such as pay slips and applications for permission to extend their stay. The lawyer said that it is unacceptable for the school to claim that the two are outsourcing contractors in reaction to their act of exercising their labor rights.