When will a university teacher be asked to retire? At one university, the answer depends on the type of contract you have.

Teachers who convert to an unlimited-term contract (UTC) are required to retire at age 65 while teachers who remain on fixed-term contracts, however, may continue working until age 70.

At first glance, this may not seem like a significant difference. Unlimited-term contracts provide important benefits, including greater employment stability and salary continuity. Unlike teachers who retire and are rehired on fixed-term contracts, UTC teachers generally avoid the salary reductions that often accompany post-retirement employment.

The trade-off, however, is significant. By converting to an unlimited-term contract, a teacher gives up the possibility of remaining continuously employed until age 70. Instead, they face mandatory retirement five years earlier.

The university argues that this policy preserves its flexibility to end the employment of teachers whose ability to perform their duties may decline with age. But the policy itself raises an obvious question: If a teacher must retire at 65 because of concerns about age or performance, why can that same teacher immediately return to work on one-year contracts until age 70?

In reality, mandatory retirement at 65 does not necessarily mean the end of employment. Teachers may be rehired, but only on fixed-term contracts. Unlike before retirement, there is no guarantee that their previous salary, workload, or other employment conditions will be maintained. Continued employment depends on the university’s decision to rehire them each year and on the terms the university is willing to offer.

In other words, the university already has the flexibility it says it needs. Mandatory retirement does not remove older teachers from the workplace—it simply removes the protections of their unlimited-term contracts.

This creates a highly unusual situation. A teacher who never converts to an unlimited-term contract may continue working until age 70 under their existing fixed-term employment. A teacher who exercises their legal right to obtain an unlimited-term contract must retire at 65 and can only continue working if the university agrees to rehire them on new one-year contracts, potentially under less favorable conditions.

The issue is not whether university teachers should retire at 65 or at 70. The issue is whether exercising a statutory right should leave a worker worse off than someone who never exercised that right.

Policies of this kind are extremely uncommon in Japan. General Union believes they undermine the purpose of the unlimited-term conversion system, which was introduced to provide greater employment security for long-serving employees—not to require them to surrender five years of stable employment in exchange.

The union is actively challenging this policy and is calling on the university to establish a fair retirement age for all teachers, regardless of contract type. Employees should not have to choose between the protections of an unlimited-term contract and the opportunity to continue working until age 70.