Photo/Illutration Norio Hirakawa, deputy director of the JTUC Research Institute for Advancement of Living Standards, right, presents the results of a survey on teachers’ working hours in Tokyo’s Kasumigaseki district on Sept. 7. (Norihiko Kuwabara)

Teachers are working an average of 11 hours and 21 minutes per day at school, a new survey shows, which is much longer than the normal daily workday stipulated under the law.

The JTUC Research Institute for Advancement of Living Standards, a think tank affiliated with Rengo (the Japanese Trade Union Confederation), released the preliminary results of the survey of public school teachers’ working hours on Sept. 7.

The average time teachers stay at school on weekdays includes meetings and training with people from outside of the schools and excludes breaks.

The average time they worked at home was 46 minutes, meaning, in total, their working hours totaled 12 hours and seven minutes.

Although the average working hours at school decreased by eight minutes from the previous survey in 2015, the average working hours at home increased by three minutes.

Teachers exceeded their required working hours by about 123 hours, on average, in one month.

When teachers were asked how long their breaks are at school, 54.6 percent said they had no break.

The Labor Standards Law stipulates employers should not have their employees work more than eight hours per day and more than 40 hours per week, in principle.

Local governments set the daily normal working hours for public school teachers at seven hours and 45 minutes.

When teachers were asked what the central and local governments should work on to reform working conditions, 93.5 percent responded they should “have more teachers and staff at the schools.”

Officials should “reduce the number of class hours,” 66.4 percent of the respondents said, and 64.5 percent replied that they should “promote small class sizes.”

“The reality has not significantly changed,” said Satoshi Shimizu, professor emeritus of Waseda University, who analyzed the results of the survey. “Teachers are still working long hours.”

“The focus must be shifted from reducing teachers’ workloads to having more teachers by expanding the budget,” he said.

The latest survey was conducted online from May to June among teachers at public elementary, junior high and high schools, along with teachers at special-needs schools across the country.

Around 9,200 teachers responded. The response rate was 92.1 percent.

(This article was written by Norihiko Kuwabara and Mayumi Ujioka.)

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