‘Work without limits’: Japan’s teachers battle for change

3 comments

1. You’ve gotta love how this somber article ends with a shot of family pictures of the teacher that died, and then is IMMEDIATELY followed by an ad for Kids Duo with “TEACH ENGLISH IN JAPAN” in all caps.

2. It’s fucking sad that people have to die before any kind of change is enacted. Teachers in Japan do way too much altogether, and something needs to be done soon.

   > “What should really be the responsibility of parents sometimes spills over onto teachers, who can even be sent to apologize to local residents when students misbehave at parks or convenience stores,” he said.

   Change that sometimes to “always”. Seems like it’s consistently the responsibility of the school to rear children, and parents have grown to expect it.

   I know many teachers who enjoy staying late and coaching clubs. Fine, let them do that. But let’s stop making it mandatory for people who want to go home and have a healthy work-life balance.

3. Fun facts about teaching kindergarten in Japan (maybe Elementary and higher are better and more regulated, but this gives you an idea of the work culture) My chided experience so YMMV.

   1. Your lunch contents must be approved. You eat with the kids every time. That is your government mandated lunch and break. I was not allowed to get convience store bento, use the office microwave, and when I complained they told me to get my girlfriend to make a bento for me everyday from the approved ingredients, or learn to cook.
   2. Your contract may say 8 to 5 or something but you will not be allowed to leave at 5. You and all the teachers have to do after school activities and cleaning rigorously until everyone leaves together, usually 2 or more hours later.
   3. You are told that these are your responsibilities as a teacher and thus not included in overtime. It is called *service zangyou* or volunteer/unpaid overtime.
   4. You will also work a lot of weekends, as there are a ton of events that parents (moms) are expected to attend, and for example the music festival you will have about 3 rehearsals before the live performance (4 weekends down the pooper.) It is very difficult for mothers to work full time for this reason too.
   5. You will need to do song and dance with all the teachers, everyone is equal. So yes you will be singing girl idol band songs in japanese and doing cute dances with the 98% female staff. You will be showing up on sunday mornings to practice these dances too *ritomiku/rhythmic* Your pay is also equalized mostly. For foreigners, you have to get paid X amount or immigration wont issue a visa. This X amount is higher than the normal teachers get paid, so you dont get any bonus to make up for it. And of course this is service overtime.

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   Teachers in America are underpaid and overworked but Japan really has the short end of the stick when it comes to overworked. At least we dont have to deal with school shootings, drugs, and people waddling around with their underwear hanging out (even kinder kids dont do this). Lots of old-style thinking bogs down progress. We had exactly ONE single father and shaded him for not showing up to some events for his daughter. Moms got double this.