The Job Market for Japanese Historians This Year

This could be a very interesting year for the job market, not to mention for Asian history blogging. I know of three Asian history bloggers on the hunt for new jobs this year: none of them have started blogging about the experience, but I’d like to invite them — or any other blogger with an eye on the lists — to start, at least a little bit.1

It’s always been a bit of a curiousity to me that there isn’t more discussion on the blogs or listservs of the state of the market. Faculty with tenure don’t care, except perhaps about very particular opportunities. People already in tenure-track positions aren’t supposed to be watching the ads: makes the department nervous about their “committment.” People who are fresh on the market don’t want to … well, spook potential employers, mostly, though they might also be concerned about giving away too much about their own search decisions to competitors, as well. Me? Well, my blogging is already on my vita, so it’s not like I’m trying to hide it from potential employers.2 I’m a blogger: I talk about things that interest me.

Well, the majority of this year’s crop of jobs has been posted, and it’s time to take stock. I’ll start....

I think the market for Japanese historians is at least as good as it’s been anytime in the last ten years. There are a healthy number of straight Japan jobs: in the mid/late 90s it seemed that Japan’s economic slump (and China’s rising star) was cutting into the growth of top-tier positions. This year, though, due to some retirements, some movement and some expansion, there are some high-class institutions who are going to be chasing the top talent: UC-Berkeley, NYU, Boston, UH-Manoa, William and Mary, Arizona State, DePaul. There is a strong East Asia/Asia category as well, about a dozen jobs including Skidmore and Fordham, Colorado at Denver, and UNC-Charlotte. There are about the same number of Asia+World jobs, and about the same number again for World+Asia; lots of State schools in these categories. I’m a little surprised, actually, that there isn’t a more pyramidal distribution, and I’m wondering if the adjunctification of World History teaching has cut into tenure-track lines in the two World-inclusive categories, perhaps shifted a few jobs into the straight Asia category?

The market for China historians — at a glance, since I’m not focused on those jobs — seems strong: more straight China jobs than Japan ones, and a few Asia/Asia+world jobs which specify Chinese specialization.6 I only saw two Korea positions, which seems about par for previous years: at some point, though, Korea positions should catch up with Japan ones. South Asian and Middle Eastern positions seem to be doing well7 with a fair number of “Asia” positions explicitly mentioning these specialities as desirable.

Other things: more online applications, a lot of them using the same HR software.8 Fewer positions requesting transcripts and writing samples up front. Fewer ads mentioning “competitive salary” or benefits.

What I don’t know is how competitive the market is going to be this year: are there a lot of new Ph.D.s in the hunt? Are Asian history Ph.D.s starting to pile up in the adjunct ranks the way Americanists and Europeanists are?...