April 13, 2025

Akahata editorial (excerpts)

The excessively long working hours of teachers need to be eliminated without delay. Nevertheless, a bill to revise the special measures law governing public school teachers’ salaries (the Act on Special Measures concerning Salaries and Other Conditions for Education Personnel of Public Compulsory Education Schools, etc.) , which is under Diet discussion, mentions nothing about teachers’ excessive working hours while aiming to increase their basic income only slightly.

The average number of hours teachers work per week including the time spent on weekends is 59 hours for public elementary and senior high school teachers and 64 hours for junior high school teachers, according to the 2022 Education Ministry survey. Under this situation, death from overwork (karoshi) has repeatedly occurred. In addition, a record-high number of teachers went on sick leave and more and more college students lost their interest in becoming teachers, which led to the current serious teacher shortage.

A survey conducted by the All Japan Teachers and Staff Union (Zenkyo) in 2024 showed that as of October, schools in 34 prefectures and 11 major cities were short by a total of 4,739 teachers and about 40% of the schools surveyed had difficulty in finding substitutes to replace teachers who took childcare, maternity, and medical leave.

One of the major factors for teachers’ excessively long working hours is the special measures law which stipulates that public school teachers are exempt from overtime pay.

Imposing penalties on overtime is a global rule to protect workers from excessive working hours. Japan’s Labor Standards Act requires employers to pay employees at least a 25% overtime premium for hours worked beyond the standard workday, a 50% or more premium for overtime exceeding 60 hours per month, and a 35% premium for work performed on statutory holidays. The aim of this measure is to curb excessive work hours by tapping into employers’ cost-consciousness.

On the other hand, public school teachers are excluded from the overtime rule under the special measures law which was bulldozed through in 1971 by the ruling LDP block.

The government has since increased school teachers’ workload without cost consciousness as it has no obligation to compensate for teachers’ overtime. As a result, many teachers are forced to work more than 80 hours of overtime per month, the government-set danger line for karoshi, which completely deviates from the eight-hour work day principle of the Labor Standards Act.