November 26, 2025

A union organizing part-time lecturers working at Senshu University went on strike on November 25 to protest against the absence of wage increases for over 20 years and to push the university to offer wage hikes.

In a recent collective bargaining session, the university administration admitted that it did not offer any pay raises to part-time lecturers between 2001 and 2024.

During the strike, the union held a rally near the main gate of the Senshu University Kanda Campus located in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward.

Union vice head Ono Motoko criticized the university’s refusal to accept the union’s wage hike demand, and said, “If the situation in which teaching staff are struggling to make ends meet continues, there few students will aspire to become university teachers and researchers.”

Professor in the economics faculty Nagae Masakazu, who also heads the full-time, regular teachers’ union, delivered a speech in solidarity.

He said that it is unacceptable for the university management to justify its refusal to offer higher wages by using uncertainty over future business conditions due to the declining birthrate. He said, “Both regular and non-regular teachers are struggling to survive the cost of living crisis. We’ll support the part-time lecturers’ fight for wage hikes.”