Japan government adopts bill for extended holidays for teachers

October 18, 2019

Tokyo--The Japanese government Friday adopted a bill to make it easier for teachers to take extended holidays, especially in summer, as part of work style reforms.

The bill to revise the special law on teacher salaries would allow public schools to introduce a variable working-hour system for managing working hours of teachers on an annual basis.

Specifically, regular weekly working hours would be increased by three in a total of 13 weeks in the busy months of April, June, October and November. Meanwhile, additional five days off would be introduced in August.

The government hopes that teachers would use the five days off to take a 10-day holiday by adding paid leave, officials said.

A fiscal 2016 survey by the education ministry showed that about 30 pct of public elementary school teachers worked more than 80 hours of overtime a month, regarded as the risk threshold for death from overwork.

The proportion stood at some 60 pct for public junior high school teachers. Jiji Press