In Japan, teachers rebel against ‘work without limits’

In one of his last diary entries, the Japanese professor Yoshio Kudo complained of working days that started early and could last almost until midnight. Two months later, suffered a “karoshi”, a death from overwork.

Kudo’s grueling schedule is no exception in Japan, where teachers have some of the longest working hours in the world, filled with tasks ranging from housekeeping to supervising school transfers to extracurricular activities.

A 2018 OECD study found that a middle school teacher in Japan works 56 hours a weekversus a 38-hour average in most developed countries.

But the figure doesn’t even include the surprising amount of overtime.

A survey conducted by a union-linked think tank showed that teachers they average 123 hours of overtime per monthtaking his workload beyond the so-called 80-hour “karoshi line”.

Teachers say they are reaching the limit and some have rebelled against this culture through legal action. This year, Japan’s ruling party commissioned a task force study the matter.

the hard work

It comes too late for Kudo. This middle school teacher died of a brain hemorrhage in 2007, only 40 years old.

At his funeral, his wife Sachiko was told by her shocked students that the spirited PE teacher was “the furthest person from death you can imagine.”

“He liked working with children”Sachiko, 55, tells AFP.

But in his final weeks he suffered with the days. “Towards the end, she told me that teachers needed to stop working this way and that she wanted to lead that change in the future,” says the widow.

The Japanese authorities they have enforced improvements such as outsourcing and the digitization of some tasks.

“Our measures to reform teachers’ working conditions are making steady progress,” Education Minister Keiko Nagaoka told parliament in October.

But he admitted that many “continue to work long hours” and “These efforts need to be accelerated.”

Ministry figures show a gradual drop in overtime, but experts don’t see many fundamental changes.

From piles of paperwork to distributing meals, cleaning or supervising the transfer of children to school, to Japanese teachers “somehow they became jack of all trades”says school management consultant, Masatoshi Senoo.

“What parental responsibility should really be falls on teachers, who may also be sent to apologize to neighbors when students misbehave in parks or shops,” she explains.

One of the most exhausting tasks is supervise sports activities and cultural activities in student clubs, usually held after school or on weekends.

Responsibilities

“Being assigned to supervise one of these clubs usually means saying goodbye to your weekends,” says Takeshi Nishimoto, a history teacher at a high school in Osaka.

In June, this 34-year-old teacher won a lawsuit asking for compensation due to the stress generated by work overload.

He filed the lawsuit after he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown in 2017 when he was supervisor of a rugby club, he put in 144 hours of overtime in just one month.

Experts indicate that teachers they are especially vulnerable to overwork due to a decades-old law that prevents them from charging overtime.

In return, the law adds eight hours of overtime a month to their monthly salaries, a system that Nishimoto says translates into “making teachers work without limits for a fixed fee.”

Masako Shimonomura, a PE teacher in Tokyo, explains that it’s hard to really take a break during the day.

“Not everything is black in this workanyway,” he adds.

“There are certain moments I live for, like seeing my softball club students shine and smile at tournaments,” says the 56-year-old, who fears this pessimistic image is being forced upon young people.

An investigation by the Mainichi newspaper in 2016 indicated this in the last decade 63 teacher deaths were classified as due to overwork.

But it took Kudo’s widow five years for “karoshi” to be officially recognized as the cause of her husband’s death.

For her, since teaching is seen as a “sacred work” of handing over to children, behaviors such as writing down extra hours worked are considered selfish.

“So many teachers regret having lived their lives without stopping to enjoy raising their children,” says the woman, a former teacher who now leads an anti-karoshi group.

“I feel like my husband and I worked together to follow through on his last words: that wants to change the working practices of teachers“.

AFP agency

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