Karoshi in the Education Sector

 Makoto Iwahashi(POSSE)

JAN 20 2021 

Overwork among care workers, especially in the education sector, has been prevalent in Japan for many years. A teachers’ union revealed its survey data in December 2021 and the results were astounding. The survey revealed public school teachers at all levels have been overworked with, on average, elementary school teachers putting in 90 hours per month of overtime, 120 hours for middle school teachers, and 83 hours for high school teachers. In addition, one out of three teachers in elementary and middle schools responded that they do not have time to take a break on a regular school day . A survey conducted by the Ministry of Education in 2016 shows a similar pattern, with around 60 percent of middle school teachers and 30 percent of elementary school teachers working more than the 80 hours-per-month karoshi threshold. 

We have seen a number of teachers lose their lives due to karoshi and karo-jisatsu, which include attempted suicide cases. From 2006 to 2016, 63 cases of karoshi were recognized by the government under the worker compensation program for civil servants. According to the Ministry of Education, in 2019, a record high 5,478 school staff members were placed on leave due to various mental illnesses, which was 266 more than the year before. Still, these are considered the tip of the iceberg since many schools still do not keep track of accurate working time records, making it nearly impossible for the victims or family members of the victims to prove that deaths or illnesses were indeed caused by overwork.

One of the reasons for overwork among public school teachers is a lack of adequate staffing. The Ministry of Education declared that at the beginning of a new school year of 2021, the government were unable to find teachers to fill in 2,558 posts nationwide. The lack of staffing exacerbates overwork, forcing currently employed teachers to work extra hours to make up for those jobs. 

Public school teachers are not even compensated for the overtime they put in. A special act which only applies to public school teachers stipulates that teachers would receive a fixed four percent of their monthly salary as overtime pay regardless of the actual number of overtime hours they put in. It basically allows public school teachers to work 24-7 with very little overtime pay. A former teacher has sued a local government to demand overtime compensation that would be paid based on actual working hours, but a district court ruled against the teacher in October 2021, stating that the teacher might have been working overtime, but the court decided it was unable to find anything which is in violation of labor standards act or the special four percent act, dismissing the teacher’s case. 

And private school teachers are facing similar cases as well. Teachers working for one of the biggest private high schools that offer online courses claim that each teacher is assigned 150 students for each class and are constantly overworked but their monthly income is barely above the minimum wage. Many are forced to leave within a few years due to overwork and inadequate compensation. 

Still, emerging labor movement has placed an emphasis on organizing public and private education staff members and several private school teachers are standing up for their rights to demand better working conditions including more staffing and an improving student per teacher ratio which would lead to higher quality of teaching since they would be able to spend more time with each student. Labor movement certainly have a role not only in preventing karoshi among educators but also in improving learning conditions of students by demanding better teaching conditions.