Our University in the top North west coast of Japan is hiring now - looking for a Professor (=must have PhD completed by April 1st 2015) to join the staff for a 3 year (renewable) contract teaching economics to undergrads, in English. If anyone is interested or knows anyone else who is interested please message me here and I can you give more details.We are NOT in big city Tokyo, we are in the countryside, very rural, foothills,quiet and beautiful beach side. Harsh winters but summer starts early, ends late. Great summers. One hour domestic flight from Tokyo. REALLY nice staff and small (Sciences mainly) University. You do not need to speak Japanese but it would be an advantage if you did. Thank you.
Imo.

Thanks TreeofLife. Interesting. I definitely want freedom of topic :/ I had this impression that it was possible to propose a topic for a PhD (in the appropriate field) and get accepted or rejected on the basis of how valuable your research idea was in relation to other research in the same area. Then I started looking at (only so far) American Universities and was surprised there were so many mandatory modules that were quite diverse and reminded me of the masters. I think I have to go to some fairs and do some more searching - on where I can best pursue the specific small area of what i want to (continue to) research.

Hello Ellie., Edwardian guy and Ian. Thanks very much for the feedback. It's helpful. And also the luck wishes. I am still looking around, will check your blog thank you. I am thinking to go and get some face to face discussion time with a few Unis who offer courses I want or think I want. Like.. fairs.. or counseling I have read some Unis do that. Yes, part time because I don't really want to give up my job - I love it. I just think that given my having the luxury of research time in my current job description if I can possibly manage the expense (with help from either funding or my work) then I would be crazy not to try and do it. It can only improve my research and motivate me more. Now I have to find a course closest to my area and that isn't easy. I am still unsure how much freedom is given in a PhD compared to masters...where we had little room to focus on favorite areas and had to excel in all 8 courses or 10 or however many it was....how does a PhD compare to a masters in terms of autonomous input or is it about the same ratio of teaching/learning (of course at a more intense level). TIA anyone. :)

I am a lecturer at a Japanese University. 11 years and love my work. I have 6 lectures a week and the rest of the time is for research and community service work (behavioral science). My research is in cultural anthropology/medical anthropology and after doing lots of presentations and having had a few papers published in work journals and one peer, plus lots of presentations in my tiny corner, I really would like to do a PhD. I have a masters in linguistics. What I need to know is where i should think about applying and if it is possible to work while doing it (bearing in mind I have all week in the office aside from 15 hrs lecture and approx- varying- 5 hours meetings) for research time. i want to stud in English and online woudl be very convenient. I'm from England and got my masters there. I am going round in circles what to do, where to apply, if I can even do this...yet I keep coming back to YES I so want to do this. A PhD in medical/social anthropology would cement all my research and is subject matter I am doing at work already. I could also get promoted to Prof on completion. Thoughts? Comments? Any words, experiences to share would be great. TIA.