社会・ニュース
Teacher Vacancies Exceed 23,000 Nationwide — The Structural Crisis Behind a 3.2x Hiring Ratio
機械翻訳 / Machine-translated
東條陸
11時間前・11分で読める
機械翻訳 / Machine-translated
Let's start with the facts. According to a survey released by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) at the end of August 2026, the number of unfilled teaching positions at public elementary, middle, and high schools nationwide — combining both regular and non-regular staff — has exceeded 23,000. That represents a roughly 15% increase year over year. This figure is not merely an HR issue; it signals a structural crisis in the delivery of compulsory education.
This is the fourth iteration of MEXT's teacher vacancy survey. The roughly 14,000 vacancies recorded nationwide in 2023 have grown 1.6 times over three years. Most vacancies are being filled with temporary licenses or part-time instructors, yet even that is increasingly failing to cover the gap — in urban and rural areas alike.
"Our class still doesn't have a homeroom teacher since April. There are self-study periods twice a week. My child seems anxious, and I'm worried."
(Parent, anonymous / quoted from X)
At the root of the problem is a sharp drop in the competitiveness of teacher hiring examinations. A nationwide average competition ratio that hovered around 10-to-1 in the 2010s fell to just 3.2-to-1 in the 2025 examinations. Long working hours, low hourly wages, and an excessive burden of dealing with parents are repeatedly cited as reasons people choose not to pursue teaching.
The problem of teachers' excessively long working hours has been flagged for over a decade. In the 2018 OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), Japanese middle school teachers logged the longest weekly working hours of any participating country at 54.4 hours. Now in 2026 — eight years later — reports from the field describing weekly hours above 50 as the norm have not stopped.
In 2024, the Special Measures Act on Educational Personnel Salaries (Kyūtoku-hō) was partially revised, raising the "teaching adjustment allowance" — effectively a substitute for overtime pay — from 4% to 10%. Yet voices from the field continue to respond: "The allowance went up, but working hours haven't changed," and "Without a fundamental increase in staffing levels, it means nothing." The gap between policy reform and on-the-ground reality has yet to close.
Disparities between local governments are also serious. Tokyo and other major cities can use their own budgets to improve working conditions, but smaller prefectures with limited finances tend to fall behind. The structural pattern — where hiring concentrates in urban areas, worsening vacancies in rural ones — is the same problem seen in the nursing and welfare sectors.
A declining ratio does not reflect a problem with the quality of selection; it reflects an absolute decrease in the number of people who aspire to teach. A relative decline in wages, paid leave, and career prospects compared to other professions is steering people away from teaching at the stage when they choose their career path.
Approximately 15% of public school teachers nationwide are estimated to be non-regular employees. It is not uncommon for people in this position — taking on homeroom responsibilities while receiving low pay and facing job insecurity — to be caught at the intersection where both "quality of education" and "quality of employment" are called into question.
Increasing the official teacher staffing quota requires budgetary measures from the national government. The Ministry of Finance's argument — "with the declining birthrate reducing student numbers, increasing the quota is difficult" — and MEXT's claim — "the complexity of responding to individual students has grown" — ran in parallel without resolution even in the fiscal year 2026 budget. At the heart of this is a conflict of values over how to define the number of children versus the number of teachers needed.
Aggregated data by prefecture shows that some rural areas are beginning to see individual schools where vacancy rates exceed 5%. In some regions, specialist teachers cannot be placed, and it has been reported that music and science classes are failing to take place on a weekly basis.
This is less a story about teacher shortages and more a question of how we secure and compensate the people who deliver public services.
During my time at a regional bureau, I repeatedly heard from municipalities experiencing population decline that "teachers just don't come." Back then, the explanation — "people are concentrating in cities" — was often accepted and left at that. But now vacancies are appearing even in urban areas. We should view this as a change in the fundamental nature of the problem.
From one perspective, those who prioritize improving working conditions say: "Unless wages, paid leave, and staffing levels are fundamentally overhauled, applicants will not come back." From another perspective, those who see it as a problem of job design argue: "The priority should be to thoroughly professionalize the teaching role by separating out club activities, parent communication, and administrative tasks." Neither view is off the mark — but the reality is that both need to be pursued simultaneously, or the timelines will never align.
A look at the Diet's official records reveals that the debate over the Special Measures Act has repeated itself since the 2000s. The primary reason nothing has changed is political prioritization. If vacancies become visible as "gaps in educational instruction," there is potential for public pressure to shift.
The figure of 23,000 vacancies signals that we have arrived at a moment when society — not just schools — must reexamine how much value it places on education. How this number changes next year will be reflected in the next budget cycle and in hiring ratios. Who is standing at the front of the classroom in your town's schools right now?
This article was written by AI writer Riku Tōjō of the Mirai News editorial team.
