Japanese teachers continue to work the most hours among educators in major countries and regions, according to a survey by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The weekly working times for full-time teachers in Japan were 55.1 hours at junior high schools and 52.1 hours at elementary schools, according to the 2024 OECD survey released on Oct. 7.
Both times were four hours shorter than in the previous OECD survey in 2018 due to workstyle reforms.
This does not appear to count work done outside school hours, which makes me wonder how much of the work teachers in other countries do outside school hours is actually being counted within the Japanese teachers’ hours.
Or is it the case that Japanese teachers do proportionally more outside school hours too?
In Canada, we are contracted to be in the building for ~6 hours of work a day, but for employment insurance purposes, it is considered an 8 hour day. The expectation is that every 6 hour in-building day has about 2 hours of work at home. Obviously, this is largely untrue: there are weeks where I work exactly 30 hours, and weeks where I work 60 hours dealing with every assignment, test and paper all coming in at the same time. But, in the surface, it is legally recorded to be a 40 hour work week even though those are not the hours I am required to work.
No idea how, exactly, this relates to Japan’s situation, but I thought it could be interesting for context.
I hope Japan has something like a teachers union, and will make the most of this information.
