'True Education' Goes 'By the Book'... Lawyers Deployed to Handle Overstepping Parents in Japan

Parental Demands Cited as a Key Cause of Mental Health Issues Among School Staff
"External Assistance Needed, Not Just Schools" - Collaboration with Bar Associations

In Japan, a new system has been introduced whereby lawyers intervene as representatives of schools to resolve issues arising from unreasonable demands or actions by parents.

A scene from Netflix's "True Education". Photo by Netflix

According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei), which cited Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the number of public school employees who took a leave of absence due to mental illness exceeded 7,000 in both 2023 and 2024, maintaining the highest level on record, as reported on July 17. Notably, the Ministry identified stress from dealing with certain parents who cross the line as one of the causes of mental illness among school staff.

In response, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations proposed a system in which lawyers can be involved as school representatives to help resolve issues with parents. Last year, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology designated unreasonable demands from guardians as an issue that should be addressed not by the schools themselves but with external support.

The Osaka Bar Association established a system last year to dispatch lawyers, called “school lawyers,” and as of this month, has deployed 40 lawyers. The Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education also issued guidelines requiring a lawyer to be present if, even after 4 to 5 meetings with a parent, the problem remains unresolved. A representative from the Tokyo Board of Education explained, “Relying on teachers’ discretion for dealing with parents is common, but sometimes less-experienced young teachers are unable to handle such situations effectively,” stressing the need for a system that enables the education authorities themselves to address these issues.

In fact, at a public middle school in Okayama Prefecture, the school requested intervention from the Okayama Bar Association when a parent persistently demanded financial compensation for an accident that occurred during a school activity. After a lawyer participated in discussions with the parent, the issue was resolved amicably. A lawyer from the Okayama Bar Association commented, “There are cases where teachers are burdened by parent-related matters late into the night, so I hope that legal intervention will reduce the load on those working in education.”

A lawyer with extensive experience in resolving school disputes told Nikkei, “Lawyers should approach school issues calmly and avoid overstepping, so that they can help resolve problems without damaging the relationship between parents and teachers.”

Meanwhile, a recent survey found that in South Korea, teachers are also struggling due to excessive complaints from parents. According to the Seoul Teachers’ Union, a survey conducted between April 15 and May 6 among 883 teachers at schools in Seoul identified the following as major factors making educational activities more difficult: civil and criminal liability for off-campus activities (99%), complaints from parents (99%), the burden of handling school violence and various disputes (98%), and workplace abuse by administrators (80%).

Policies proposed to protect teachers’ rights included the need to increase the budget for safeguarding educational activities (96%), to expand and reorganize educational activity protection teams at the departmental level (87%), and to establish a one-stop response system at the education office level for retaliatory child abuse reports and malicious complaints (100%).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.