Japan is expanding teacher workload reforms, pay improvements, staffing support, and school digitalization as public schools continue to face thousands of unfilled teaching positions.
Japan is continuing one of its most significant efforts in decades to change how public-school teachers work.
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, commonly known as MEXT, is pushing schools and boards of education to reduce excessive workloads, move more non-teaching duties away from classroom teachers, expand support staff, improve teacher compensation, and use digital systems to reduce administrative work. (mext.go.jp)
The reforms come as Japan faces a persistent staffing problem. A national MEXT survey released in March found 3,827 unfilled teaching positions in public schools as of May 1, 2025, up from 2,065 in the ministry’s previous comparable survey four years earlier. (mext.go.jp)
Bottom Line: Japan is increasingly treating teacher workload, staffing shortages, compensation, recruitment, retention, and school administration as parts of the same workforce problem rather than separate policy issues.
What We Know
MEXT has been pursuing what Japan commonly calls 働き方改革, or work-style reform, in schools for years.
The central idea is straightforward: teachers should spend more of their working time on instruction, student support, professional development, and other responsibilities that require educational expertise, while duties that do not necessarily require a licensed teacher should be reduced, reassigned, automated, or handled by other staff.
MEXT states that school work-style reform is intended to give teachers more time to improve lessons, develop professionally, and provide more effective education to students. (mext.go.jp)
The policy became more concrete after major legislation affecting teacher compensation and workload management was enacted in 2025.
Japan is now in the implementation stage.
Japan Has Set a National Workload Reduction Target
One of the clearest national goals concerns the amount of time teachers remain at school beyond regular working hours.
The government is aiming to reduce average monthly time spent at school outside regular working hours to about 30 hours by fiscal 2029.
The Ministry of Finance has also described a longer-term goal of reducing that figure to around 20 hours per month. (mof.go.jp)
MEXT’s 2026 school administrative digitalization program repeats the same 30-hour target and links it directly to efforts to modernize school operations and reduce administrative burden. (mext.go.jp)
That matters because Japan’s reform strategy is not supposed to depend on simply telling teachers to work fewer hours.
The government is trying to change the structure that generates those hours.
Boards of Education Now Face Greater Responsibility
Another major part of the reforms is local accountability.
Boards of education are expected to develop plans for managing teacher workload and protecting employee health and welfare.
MEXT has issued guidance on working-hour management and work-style reform, and the 2025 legal changes strengthened the expectation that education boards plan and track how they reduce excessive workload. (mext.go.jp)
This represents an important shift.
Long teacher working hours have been discussed in Japan for years, but the current framework places greater pressure on local education authorities to measure the problem and demonstrate what they are doing about it.
The success of the reform will therefore depend heavily on implementation at prefectural and municipal levels.
The Teacher Shortage Has Become Harder to Ignore
Workload reform is occurring against a difficult staffing backdrop.
MEXT defines a teacher shortage as a situation in which education authorities cannot secure enough temporary or replacement teachers to fill the number of positions they planned for schools.
As of May 1, 2025, public schools were short 3,827 teachers. (mext.go.jp)
The shortage included 1,699 elementary-school positions, 1,031 junior-high positions, 508 high-school positions, and 589 positions in special-needs schools. (japantimes.co.jp)
Special-needs schools were particularly affected. About 25.4% had at least one teacher shortage when the survey was conducted.
Elementary schools were also struggling to fill homeroom positions. The number of missing elementary homeroom teachers rose to 1,086, more than double the 474 reported in the previous survey. (japantimes.co.jp)
In some schools, principals, vice principals, or senior teachers had to step into homeroom assignments.
That creates a straightforward workload problem.
When one position goes unfilled, the work does not disappear.
It is usually redistributed among the people who remain.
Why Japan Is Short of Teachers
Japan’s teacher shortage does not have a single cause.
MEXT has pointed to difficulty finding temporary teachers when regular staff take maternity leave, parental leave, medical leave, or other extended absences.
The supply of people willing to serve as temporary or part-time teachers has also become tighter.
TV Asahi reported that MEXT cited stronger competition from private-sector employers and an increase in special-needs classes among the factors contributing to the shortage. (news.tv-asahi.co.jp)
MEXT described the situation as serious and said it would continue improving working conditions, moving recruitment earlier, and providing targeted support to regions facing particularly severe shortages. (news.tv-asahi.co.jp)
That creates a difficult cycle.
Staff shortages increase workload.
Heavy workload makes recruitment and retention harder.
Weaker recruitment then makes shortages harder to solve.
Teacher Pay Is Also Being Changed
Japan’s reform effort is not limited to working hours.
The government has enacted one of the largest changes to teacher compensation in roughly 50 years.
Public-school teachers traditionally receive a special adjustment payment instead of ordinary overtime compensation under Japan’s teacher-pay framework.
That adjustment had long been set at 4% of monthly base salary.
Under the revised system, the adjustment is being raised gradually toward 10%. MEXT describes the change as part of a broader effort to improve the treatment of teachers as highly skilled professionals and make the profession more attractive. (mext.go.jp)
Government Public Relations Online explains that the adjustment will rise gradually from 4% to 10%, alongside other changes involving homeroom responsibilities and new career structures. (gov-online.go.jp)
The policy reflects something Japan has increasingly acknowledged openly:
Improving recruitment may require improving both working conditions and compensation.
Higher pay alone will not solve excessive workload.
Lower workload alone may not solve recruitment.
The reforms are attempting to address both.
Smaller Junior High Classes Are Part of the Workforce Strategy
Japan is also moving junior high schools toward 35-student classes, continuing a similar policy already implemented in elementary schools.
MEXT’s current recruitment and workforce guidance describes the transition from 40-student to 35-student junior-high classes as part of broader efforts to improve educational quality and reduce teacher burden. (mext.go.jp)
Smaller classes can improve student support, but they also require sufficient staffing.
That creates an interesting policy tension.
Japan’s student population is shrinking because of demographic decline, yet some schools still cannot fill the teaching positions they already have.
A shrinking student population does not automatically eliminate a workforce shortage.
The issue is not just how many students exist nationally.
It is whether qualified teachers are available in the right places, subjects, school types, and employment categories.
Japan Wants Teachers Doing Less Non-Teaching Work
A central part of work-style reform is reconsidering what teachers should actually be responsible for.
Japanese teachers have traditionally taken on duties that educators in some other systems might see handled by administrators, coaches, counselors, clerical workers, or community organizations.
Those responsibilities can include club activities, school events, parent communication, attendance management, paperwork, student guidance, and other operational work.
Government policy increasingly emphasizes shifting some of those responsibilities away from classroom teachers.
A 2024 agreement between the finance and education ministries specifically called for stronger reductions in non-core duties, including external communication, clerical tasks, club activities, and other responsibilities that can be moved to local government, community organizations, or support staff. (mof.go.jp)
This does not mean schools can simply stop doing necessary work.
It means responsibility may need to move.
That could involve administrative staff, support personnel, local governments, outside organizations, digital systems, or community programs.
Digital Transformation Is Supposed to Reduce Administrative Work
Technology is another major part of the strategy.
MEXT is funding a school administrative DX initiative during fiscal 2026.
The project is designed to modernize administrative systems and reduce repetitive clerical work while supporting the national goal of reducing average monthly after-hours time to roughly 30 hours by fiscal 2029. (mext.go.jp)
In practice, that could mean fewer paper-based processes, more efficient information sharing, centralized administrative systems, and less repeated data entry.
But technology will only help if it actually removes work.
Replacing a paper process with a digital process while keeping every old requirement does not necessarily save teachers time.
The real test will be whether schools simplify operations rather than simply digitize them.
Workload Reform Is Really a Retention Strategy
Japan often discusses these changes as reforms to working conditions.
They are also recruitment and retention policies.
People deciding whether to become teachers are evaluating the entire profession.
Salary matters.
So do working hours, workload, professional respect, job stability, support systems, and whether teachers believe the career is sustainable over decades.
That connection becomes especially clear when staffing shortages and excessive workload occur simultaneously.
Japan cannot recruit its way out of a shortage if working conditions continue discouraging people from entering or remaining in the profession.
Why This Matters for Teachers
For current teachers, the most important question is whether national reform becomes visible in the actual workday.
A national target means little if teachers still leave school late every evening.
A new support worker means little if that person does not meaningfully reduce classroom teachers’ responsibilities.
A new digital platform means little if it creates another login, another reporting requirement, or another administrative task.
The reforms will ultimately be judged at school level.
Do teachers have more planning time?
Are unnecessary duties actually disappearing?
Are absences covered without overloading colleagues?
Are club activities and administrative responsibilities being redistributed?
And are teachers actually spending fewer hours at school?
Those outcomes will matter more than the number of policy documents produced.
Why This Matters for Students
Teacher workload is not simply an employee issue.
It can affect students directly.
Teachers with adequate planning time can prepare stronger lessons, provide more useful feedback, collaborate with colleagues, and spend more time supporting individual students.
Severe staffing shortages can create the opposite conditions.
Classes may be reorganized, administrators may have to teach, specialized programs may lose staff, and remaining teachers may take on additional responsibilities.
Special-needs schools are particularly important to watch because the national shortage survey found staffing problems at roughly one-quarter of those schools. (japantimes.co.jp)
Students who require additional support may be among those most affected by unstable staffing.
Key Takeaways
- MEXT reported 3,827 unfilled public-school teaching positions as of May 1, 2025, compared with 2,065 in the previous comparable survey. (mext.go.jp)
- Teacher shortages were especially severe in special-needs schools, where 25.4% of schools were affected. (japantimes.co.jp)
- Japan is targeting a reduction in average teacher after-hours presence to about 30 hours per month by fiscal 2029. (mext.go.jp)
- Japan is gradually increasing the special teacher compensation adjustment from 4% toward 10% while making other staffing and career changes. (mext.go.jp)
- Current reforms combine workload management, staffing, pay, smaller classes, support personnel, digitalization, and duty redistribution rather than treating each issue separately.
What to Watch Next
The next several years will determine whether Japan’s reforms actually change the daily experience of teaching.
The period through fiscal 2029 has been designated as an intensive reform period, with the 30-hour monthly target serving as one of the clearest national benchmarks. (mext.go.jp)
Another major indicator will be Japan’s next teacher-shortage survey.
If vacancies remain high despite compensation increases, smaller classes, support staffing, work-style reform, and digitalization, policymakers may need to consider deeper changes involving recruitment, temporary employment, licensing, staffing allocation, and the overall structure of teachers’ jobs.
The most important measure of success, however, will be simpler:
Do teachers actually feel that their jobs have become more sustainable?
FAQ
How many teachers is Japan currently short?
MEXT’s latest national teacher-shortage survey found 3,827 unfilled positions as of May 1, 2025 across public elementary, junior high, high, and special-needs schools. (mext.go.jp)
Are Japanese teachers being paid more?
Yes.
Japan is gradually increasing the special adjustment paid to public-school teachers from 4% of monthly base salary toward 10%, alongside other compensation changes. (mext.go.jp)
Does Japan pay teachers ordinary overtime?
Japan’s public-school teacher compensation system is unusual.
Teachers generally receive a special salary adjustment under the Special Measures Act rather than ordinary overtime compensation in the same way as many other workers.
The government is increasing that adjustment while also trying to reduce excessive working hours.
Why are Japanese teachers known for working long hours?
Teachers often perform responsibilities beyond direct classroom teaching, including student guidance, club activities, school events, parent communication, and administrative work.
Current reforms are specifically trying to reduce or redistribute some of those responsibilities.
Will technology reduce teacher workload?
That is one of MEXT’s goals.
Japan is investing in school administrative digital transformation to reduce repetitive work and improve efficiency. Whether that results in meaningful time savings will depend on how schools implement it. (mext.go.jp)
Final Thoughts
Japan’s teacher shortage and teacher workload problem are increasingly becoming the same policy conversation.
Recruiting more teachers will be difficult if the profession remains associated with excessive hours and responsibilities extending far beyond classroom instruction.
At the same time, reducing workload becomes much harder when schools cannot fill existing positions.
Japan’s current reforms recognize that cycle.
The real test will be whether teachers themselves begin to feel the difference.
Related Articles
Japan Considers Teacher-Licensing Changes as Schools Seek a More Diverse Workforce
Examines Japan’s attempts to expand pathways into teaching while maintaining professional standards—an important companion issue to the country’s staffing shortage. This link was live-verified before finalizing this article. (newtoeducation.com)
Japan Reconsiders Curriculum Overload as Schools Look for More Time to Teach Deeply
Explores how curriculum expectations intersect with teacher planning time, instructional quality, and workload. This link was live-verified before finalizing this article. (newtoeducation.com)
Opinion: Teachers Need More Time, Not More Paperwork
A broader NTE perspective on why excessive administrative work can undermine instruction and teacher sustainability. This link was live-verified before finalizing this article. (newtoeducation.com)
Key Documents
MEXT — 2025 Teacher Shortage Survey
Japan’s official national survey documenting teacher vacancies across public elementary, junior high, high, and special-needs schools. (mext.go.jp)
https://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/shotou/kyoin/mext_00018.html
MEXT — School Work-Style Reform
The ministry’s central policy page outlining Japan’s ongoing teacher workload-reduction efforts. (mext.go.jp)
https://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/shotou/hatarakikata/index.htm
MEXT — Teacher Compensation Reform
Official MEXT guidance explaining the phased increase in the special teacher compensation adjustment and related changes. (mext.go.jp)
https://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/shotou/kyoshi-kankyo/mext_03345.html
MEXT — Accelerating School Administrative DX
Official fiscal 2026 program connecting school digitalization with teacher workload reduction and the 2029 workload target. (mext.go.jp)
https://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/shotou/zyouhou/detail/mext_00093.html
Sources
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology — 2025 Teacher Shortage Survey
March 5, 2026. Primary source for Japan’s latest national teacher-shortage survey.
https://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/shotou/kyoin/mext_00018.html
MEXT — School Work-Style Reform
Primary ministry resource describing the purpose and implementation of school work-style reform.
https://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/shotou/hatarakikata/index.htm
MEXT — Teacher Compensation Reform
Primary source explaining the increase in teacher compensation from 4% toward 10% and related workforce changes.
https://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/shotou/kyoshi-kankyo/mext_03345.html
MEXT — Accelerating School Administrative DX
Official explanation of Japan’s fiscal 2026 administrative digitalization initiative and the national 2029 workload target.
https://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/shotou/zyouhou/detail/mext_00093.html
The Japan Times — 3,827 Teacher Positions Unfilled Across Japan: 2025 Survey
March 5, 2026. Independent reporting detailing the scale of the shortage across school types.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/03/05/japan/3827-teacher-positions-unfilled/
TV Asahi — More Than 3,800 Teachers Missing From Public Schools Nationwide
March 5, 2026. Reporting on the shortage, regional deterioration, and contributing workforce factors.
https://news.tv-asahi.co.jp/news_society/articles/000489562.html
Government Public Relations Online — Revised Teacher Pay Law and School Work-Style Reform
August 18, 2026. Government explanation of the amended teacher-pay law, workload reform, organizational changes, and phased compensation increases.
https://www.gov-online.go.jp/article/202608/entry-11562.html
Ministry of Finance — Phased Increase in Additional Adjustments for the Teaching Profession
Official government summary of the teacher compensation schedule and national targets for reducing time spent at school outside regular working hours.
https://www.mof.go.jp/english/policy/budget/budget/fy2025/01.pdf
