May 14, 2025

A joint commission of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has recommended that the Japanese government provide proper overtime pay to public school teachers.

The Joint ILO-UNESCO Committee of Experts on the Application of the Recommendations concerning Teaching Personnel (CEART) in February recommended that the Japanese government “devise transparent mechanisms to adequately compensate work beyond regular working hours.”

In Japan, however, to maintain the nonpayment of overtime wages, a government-sponsored revision of the law concerning public teachers’ salaries (Act on Special Measures concerning Salaries and Other Conditions for Education Personnel of Public Compulsory Education Schools) is currently under Diet discussion.

The government claims that overtime work for class preparation and school club activities are “voluntary activities” not counted as working hours, making many public school teachers take on burdensome workloads and work excessive overtime without pay.

The CEART recommendations include: “develop a mechanism to ensure the adequate staffing of schools to allow more time for teachers to spend on teaching-related activities.” In addition, the Joint ILO–UNESCO Committee calls for measures such as “establishing systems to monitor and control work beyond regular working hours on a regular basis, including class preparation work performed at home.”

Regarding the recommendations, Secretary General of the All Japan Teachers and Staff Union (Zenkyo) Kanai Yuko said to Akahata, “Zenkyo is demanding a revision of the law which effectively eliminates excessively long working hours, and will use the CEART recommendations as ‘leverage’ to press the government and local municipalities to increase education budgets and the number of teachers.”

Past related article:
> Law on teachers’ working conditions should be revised to eliminate excessively long working hours [April 13, 2025]