Photo/Illutration Tennis club members practice after dark at a junior high school in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, in March. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

When "sports konjo" (literally, sports and guts) manga was at the height of its popularity in Japan, many works were about extracurricular school athletic clubs.

Among them is Akio Chiba's "Captain," a serial that just celebrated the 50th anniversary of its debut.

Rereading it for the first time in many years, I was still moved to tears by the efforts made, and the growth achieved, by this mediocre baseball club of the fictional Sumiya No. 2 Junior High School.

One thing that struck me this time was the virtual absence of any teacher supervising this club. The students were basically on their own when they practiced or played.

Come to think of it, that was pretty much how club activities went at my junior high school, too. Back then, things were rather permissive, if you will.

But that is out of the question today, if only for safety reasons.

Many schoolteachers oversee club activities, supervising the students practically every day and sometimes accompanying them when they compete in away games on the weekend.

And the teachers don't get to take compensatory days off, nor are they paid sufficiently for overtime.

This situation should no longer be allowed to continue.

I learned the expression "bukatsu mibojin" (literally, extracurricular club activity widow) from "Burakku Bukatsudo" (Black extracurricular club activities), a book by Ryo Uchida, an education expert.

The term applies to women whose schoolteacher husbands are rarely at home, spending almost all their time supervising club activities.

Whether the teacher is male or female, it is just not right when they must sacrifice their own time raising their children as parents.

A panel of experts, appointed by the Japan Sports Agency, recently came up with a set of reform proposals which aim, within the next three years, to entrust the supervision of extracurricular club activities at public junior high schools on holidays to local organizations.

This may come across as a major transition. But all it boils down to is to fulfill the modest, yet urgent, desire of teachers to "rest at least on the weekend."

In recent years, considerable progress has been made by private corporations to reduce overtime work and ensure their workers take days off.

But educational institutions have been left behind.

Without swift reforms, securing schoolteachers and maintaining quality education will remain elusive.

--The Asahi Shimbun, May 10

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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