大学助手職に関する歴史的研究  [in Japanese] The Historical Study on the Position of University Assistant  [in Japanese]

There are four kinds of university assistants in Japanese universities today, when categorized by work content: firstly, auxiliary assistants supporting research and teaching carried out by professors; secondly, secretarial assistants doing office work, especially in the fields of humanities and social sciences; thirdly, research assistants who can be promoted to full professors through associate professors in the future; fourthly, clinical-research assistants who take a training after graduation from university, especially in faculties of medicine. Since other main academic positions such as lecturer, associate professor and full professor do not consist of such various groups, the assistant is a unique position in contrast with them. So, how did the variety of assistants become established ? The assistant emerged as a formal position in Japanese universities in 1893. This paper aims to investigate historically the actual state of assistants and how they have diversified since then, analyzing the careers of those in the imperial universities. The main findings are as follows: (1) Throughout the pre-world-war-II period, the assistants in the faculties of law and economics in Tokyo Imperial University had been those in research. As especially since 1920 all associate professors, who would certainly be promoted to full professors had been recruited from the assistants, the assistant position became a part of the important research career for whoever wanted to attain the post of full professor. (2) However, these cases were exceptional in the fields of humanities and social sciences, where positions consisted of research assistants and secretarial assistants. (3) The assistants in the faculties of natural sciences, engineering and agriculture were mainly auxiliary assistants to research and teaching. About half of them had school careers shorter than full secondary education, including those who graduated only from elementary school and had no formal school careers. And it is supposed that most of them worked in private industry or became secondary school teachers after they left the position of assistant. However, there were also some research assistants in those faculties, since some of the assistants would take the post of full professor. (4) The assistants in the faculties of medicine had largely been clinical-research assistants since 1893.