Teachers in Japan aren't happy at all

Japanese Teachers are suffering from Depression

A Survey released by the Japanese Ministry of Education on December 26 showed a sad reality that up to 10,944 public school teachers in this country had to apply for a long-term leave of one month or more due to illness, or mental illness in just 1 year. 

Japan is one of the most advanced educational countries in the world. This is a country with a scarcity of natural resources and often faces countless natural disasters, perhaps that's why the Japanese always think of people as the country's labor source, wanting the country to develop without a choice, no choice but to train a quality workforce. To achieve success on the human side, Japan has invented heavily in education.

Behind this remarkable development in terms of education, It is impossible not to mention the dedication and devotion of teachers in the country of the "rising sun". Accordingly, most of the teachers here had to work hard from morning to night, even having to shoulder the burden of supervising students to clean up after school. Under oppressive pressure, many teachers have fallen into very painful tragedies such as depression or even death. 

More than 10,000 Japanese teachers suffer from depression

According to statistics released on December 26 by the Japanese Ministry of Education, in the 2021 school year alone, up to 10, 944 public school teachers have applied for a long-term leave of one month or more. Mental illness including depression. This has increased to 15.2 % from the previous school year and represents a record high of 1.19% of the total number of teachers in Japan. Witnessing this huge number, many authorities believe that one of the reasons for this situation too long working hours which is a serious problem in Japanese schools when the workload is high, increasing work for young teachers. of the 10,944 teachers taking long-term leave for the 2021 school year, up to 5000 teachers took more than 90 days off the general limit of the number of sick days a teacher is allowed to take. , Continuing to set a new record. This number accounts for 0.64% of the highest percentage recorded. Since the 2007 school year, the number of mentally ill teachers who have had to leave their jobs has hovered around 5,000.

According to another study by the Japanese Ministry of Education conducted in 2016, about 30% of teachers at public elementary schools and about 60% at public junior high schools work an average of 6 hours per day, per month exceeding the government regulation of 80 hours.

The survey also showed the percentage of teachers taking sick leave and mental illness leave by age group: 1.87% in their 20s, 1.36% in their 30s, 1.27% in their 40s, and 0.92% for those 50 years of age or older. There is a trend towards more leave of young teachers and all age groups have increased compared to the previous school year. The group of teachers in their 20s had the highest increase with 0.43%. It can be said that a reform of teachers working time is an urgent matter in Japanese education at the moment.

The survey also examined whether 5,897 teachers who took leave for mental illness during the 2021 school year would return to work before April 2022. As a result, 2,473 teachers have returned to work. 2,283 teachers continue to take leave and the remaining 1,141 people directly quit.

The human resources representative of the education board in a large city believes that the problem lies in the shortage of teachers, which is difficult to make up for when employees quit in the middle of the school year due to childbirth or parenting. This leads to extra responsibilities for other teachers and makes them unable to take care of their health. After returning to the workforce, "they need to get back to their jobs right away, but many teachers have difficulty communicating with children and parents" the representative said.

Additionally, in a study conducted in November and December by the Hiroshima-based non-profit organization Kyouiku no Mori, professor emeritus Masahito Ogawa of the University of Tokyo and others examined the response of about 80 education boards for teachers with mental illness. As a result, work overload and a lack of people in management positions are the cause of depression.

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