This qualitative study is part of a broader study that explored how adjunct foreign English-language teachers (AFELT) in the Japanese university sector conceptualize their role against the backdrop of internationalization. Forty-three teachers across a range of universities participated in this study. The results report on AFELT perceptions of higher education in Japan, teaching English and the role of AFELT in that context, and reveal a discontinuity between the governmental rhetoric of internationalization concerning English-language education and how this is enacted at the institutional level.