Academic Employment Opportunities at the National Institute of Informatics, Research Organization of Information and Systems

Academic Employment Opportunities at the National Institute of Informatics, Research Organization of Information and Systems

2025/05/21

1. Job titles and number of positions：

Associate Professor or Assistant Professor with term – several of each position
*Consideration may also be given to Professorial appointments.

2. Starting date of employment：

Expected to be April 1st, 2026

3. Term of appointment：

Term of appointment shall be seven (7) years.
A tenured position may be granted if exceptionally excellent research track record is recognized.
Promotion, or appointment to a tenured position can be granted depending on performance during term.

4. Working Conditions：

Working conditions shall be governed by the Office Regulations of the Research Organization of Information and Systems and other relevant guidelines.
Remuneration matters shall, in principle, conform to the new annual salary system stipulated in the Salary Regulations of the Research Organization of Information and Systems.

5. Role of NII and expectations of desired candidates：

As Japan’s only comprehensive academic research institute in the field of informatics, the National Institute of Informatics (NII) has a mission to promote basic research in informatics from a long-term perspective along with practical research designed to resolve issues that confront society. As an Inter-University Research Institute, NII also has missions to develop and disseminate an academic information infrastructure necessary for research and educational activities in the academic community, including operation of a network (SINET6), Research Data Cloud, Authentication Infrastructure, and Scholarly Communication. As we engage in these activities, it is crucial to develop human resources and to make sincere social and international contributions.

In addition, NII offers graduate programs in The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI, in order to conduct research and education with the goal of educating researchers while at the same time educating highly specialized professionals and grooming leaders who will produce great achievements in the field of informatics.

With these missions in mind, NII is seeking researchers who have the self-drive to pioneer the future of informatics in Japan and will generate outcomes competitive in the international academic communities, or alternatively, will deliver results that contribute to improvements in our society.

In this regard, NII will endeavor to provide ample research hours and offer an environment conducive to the concentrated research.

6. Research fields：

Select and enter in the Curriculum vitae a research division of your preference from the followings. Candidates with expertise shown as boldface are welcomed:

1. Principles of Informatics Research Division:
   Algorithms, artificial intelligence, machine learning, post deep learning, big data analysis, data mining, secure computation, privacy preserving analysis, computational complexity theory, cryptology, mathematical modeling, numerical analysis, Optimization, computational science, Web informatics, programming theory, mathematical logic, robotics, quantum information research, new principles and theories in interdisciplinary fields of the above areas, cutting-edge research creating new applications in the above areas, etc.
2. Information Systems Architecture Science Research Division:
   System software, software engineering, software science, programming languages, computer architecture, high performance computing, distributed / parallel / cloud computing, dependable systems, secure systems, high-performance computing, network architecture, network resource management, network performance analysis / measurement, security, authentication / trust, Internet of Things (IoT), cyber-physical systems, etc.
3. Digital Content and Media Sciences Research Division:
   Natural language processing, computer vision, image processing, audio media processing, multimodal AI, generative AI, human-computer interaction, interactive media, agent, data engineering, digital archive, social media biometrics, medical information analysis, etc.
4. Information, Society Research Division :
   Science of science, AI and society, AI and education, computational social science, social informatics, human informatics, information retrieval, cognitive science, social psychology, information and law, archival studies, media studies, media literacy, science and technology communication, etc.

7. Requirements and experience：

Applicants should have sufficient ability and strong will to engage in original, progressive research and to develop information systems with new concepts in their chosen field.

8. Qualifications：

Applicants should hold (or be expected to complete by the appointment date) a doctoral degree. An equivalent qualification in the fields of humanities or social sciences is also acceptable.

9. Documents required for application：

• Curriculum vitae (attachment 1)
  Include desired research section (research and development field) and desired position (Associate Professor or Assistant Professor).
• List of publications (attachment 2)
  List papers, books, etc., respectively in descending order of publication year. Attach full text copies of three representative papers / articles.
• Research Statement (attachment 3)
  Introduction to research and development achievements to date in 1000 words or less (A4 size).
• Activities in the academic community and relevant societies (attachment 4)
• Professional activities (attachment 5)
• Activities for the benefit of society (attachment 6)
• Letter of recommendation
  Two recommendation letters are required. The letter of recommendation should be sent to NII directly from the recommender.

Note: You can download the attachments at the following link.

Attachment 1:

https://www.nii.ac.jp/en/about/upload/nii_Attachment1_2025.docx

Attachment 2 to 6:

https://www.nii.ac.jp/en/about/upload/nii_Attachment2-6_2025.docx

10. Application deadline：

All documents must be received by July 11, 2025.

11. Selection procedure：

1st review: Initial screening of documents
2nd review: Interviews

Those who pass the initial screening will be invited for an interview. Interviews will be conducted on the date and time appointed by NII from mid-August to late August 2025. The date and time will be adjusted within the range specified by NII.

Travel expenses related to the interview will not be reimbursed by NII.

Regarding this recruitment, for those who live abroad, the interview will be on-site or online according to your choice. However, depending on the situation, the interview may be online regardless of your choice.

12. Notification of application result：

After all selection procedures have been completed, applicants will be notified of the results until October 31th, 2025.

13. Inquiries：

• Application requirements and working conditions:
  Personnel Affairs Team, General Affairs Division,
  General Affairs Department, National Institute of Informatics
  E-mail: 2025koubo-r (at)nii.ac.jp
• Research content:
  Prof. SATOH Shin’ichi, Vice Director-General,
  National Institute of Informatics
  E-mail: 2025koubo-r (at)nii.ac.jp

14. Submission of application documents：

Applications for this position can be submitted using “JREC-IN Portal web application” (https://jrecin.jst.go.jp/seek/SeekTop?ln=1) or sending it to the above-mentioned inquiries address as an e-mail attachment with the subject line “Academic Employment Opportunities (Applicant’s Name)”.

When using JREC-IN Portal, please prepare each of the documents in PDF file, compress them into a ZIP file, and submit via “JREC-IN Portal web application”. Please also send an e-mail to notify us of your application to the above-mentioned inquiries address.

To apply by email, please make a ZIP file in the same way as above, and send it to the above-mentioned inquiries address as an e-mail attachment with the subject line “Academic Employment Opportunities (Applicant’s Name)”.

Please ask the recommender to send it directly to the above- mentioned inquiries address. In doing so, please make sure that the subject line is “Letter of recommendation (Applicant’s Name)” and specify the name of recommender in the mail body.

If you do not receive a reply within 5 days after submitting the application documents, please contact us again by e-mail.

15. Additional notes：

• Handling personal information
  Personal information provided during the course of this recruitment process shall be used for only the purpose of selecting candidates. At the conclusion of the selection process, NII shall dispose of all personal information responsibly, with the exception of information pertaining to successful candidates. Please note that personal information on successful candidates will be used in employment procedures related to human resources, work duties, and salary, as well as other in-house procedures including research and education.
• NII actively employs and promotes women on equal basis with men in terms of their ability from the viewpoints of research achievement, educational achievement, and social contribution. We take care that no candidates are disadvantaged by their leaves for maternity, childcare and nursing care if they are so noted in the CVs.
• NII also considers employment based on cross-appointment thinking to facilitate personnel exchanges with universities and other institutions in Japan and overseas.
• Please refer to the research environment at NII (NII Today: Young Researchers and the Research Environment, No. 101, 2023).