"Who Wants This Job Nowadays?"... 50-Hour Workweeks, Low Pay, and the Lowest Satisfaction in Japan for This Profession

OECD "2026 Education at a Glance" Report
50.4 Working Hours per Week... Only 28.6% Satisfied with Pay

Japanese teachers work longer hours than their counterparts in other major developed countries, yet their satisfaction levels with pay and working conditions are among the lowest, according to a recent survey.

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Japanese Teachers: Long Working Hours, Low Pay... The Lowest Satisfaction with Working Conditions

According to NHK and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)'s "2026 Education at a Glance" report released on September 30, the average weekly working hours for teachers in Japan were recorded at 50.4 hours.

This figure far exceeds the average working hours of regular Japanese employees with a university degree, which is 44.1 hours per week, and stands out as particularly high among OECD member countries.

Due to poor working conditions, the proportion of those who become teachers after majoring in education in college is 33%, which is significantly lower than the OECD average of 53%. The percentage of "mid-career" teachers who switch to teaching from other professions is also only 0.9%, compared to the OECD average of 8.4%.

Based on Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) adjusted for different cost-of-living levels in each country, the average annual salary for Japanese middle school teachers is roughly $43,000 (about 58 million won), which is below the OECD average of $49,000.

The percentage of Japanese teachers who said they are satisfied with their salaries stood at just 28.6%, about 10 percentage points lower than the OECD average of 38.7%. In particular, only 37.3% of respondents expressed satisfaction with non-monetary aspects of their working conditions, ranking Japan at the bottom among member countries.

In addition, Japan’s government education expenditure as a proportion of GDP is only 2.7%, significantly lower than the OECD average of 4.2%. This puts Japan in the second-lowest position among the countries surveyed.

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Dwindling Interest in Teaching... Japan Considers Forgiving Scholarships Amid Teacher Shortage

The shortage of teachers in Japan is evident in the numbers as well. As of the start of the new school year in April last year, there was a shortage of 4,317 teachers in public elementary, middle, high, and special schools nationwide. Interest in teaching as a career continues to decline. The competition ratio for public school teaching positions dropped from 13.3 to 1 in the early 2000s to just 2.9 to 1 for the 2025 recruitment exam.

In response, the Japanese government plans to implement measures to attract more people to the teaching profession by alleviating the burden of repaying student loans borrowed during university. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology is considering a system that would fully or partially forgive student loan repayments for teachers in national, public, and private elementary, middle, and high schools who work for a certain period.

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