Japan Records Highest Number Ever: 953 Teachers Changed Jobs Due to Mental Illness

Local media outlets such as the Yomiuri Shimbun and Mainichi Shimbun reported on the 29th that nearly 1,000 teachers at public elementary, junior high, and high schools in Japan have resigned due to mental health issues.

According to the interim report of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's (MEXT) triennial school teacher statistics survey, 953 public elementary, junior high, and high school teachers resigned due to mental health reasons in 2021, more than five times the 171 teachers who resigned for the same reason in 2018. This is the highest number since the survey began in 2009.

By school type, 571 were elementary school teachers, 277 were junior high school teachers, and 105 were high school teachers, all record highs. In 2021, 7.5% of the total 12,652 teachers who resigned, excluding those who retired at the mandatory retirement age, left due to mental health issues.

Japan is experiencing a severe shortage of teachers as the number of applicants wishing to become teachers has declined due to issues such as working conditions. MEXT stated that the increase in teachers' workload has had a significant impact and plans to promote improvements in teachers' work conditions and mental health measures.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.