Teacher Attrition from Mental Illness Hits a Record 1,319 — Will the Raise Reach the Root?

1,319 Teachers Left the Classroom Over Mental Illness

Teachers are leaving the classroom over mental illness at a record rate. By the School Teacher Statistics Survey of Japan's Ministry of Education (MEXT), 801 elementary school teachers[1], 365 in junior high[1] and 153 in high school[1] left over mental illness in FY2024, against 569[2], 277[2] and 104[2] in the previous FY2021 survey — a rise from 950 to 1,319 across the three school types, a total this article has summed. Mental illness accounts for most of the departures attributed to illness: 801 of 1,040[1] in elementary schools and 365 of 489[1] in junior high. This is a mid-report figure; the final numbers are due in March 2027.

It Has Multiplied 2.1 Times in Nine Years

The figure did not jump suddenly. In the same survey for FY2015, teachers who left over mental illness came to 331 in elementary, 213 in junior high and 75 in high school, 619 in all[3]. That is 2.1 times over nine years. Their share of all leavers rose too, from 7.5% to 8.5%.

How teachers leave has changed as well. Among those leaving public elementary schools, the share who left for reasons other than reaching retirement age flipped from 34.0% in FY2015 to 60.2% in FY2024[3]. Teaching is ceasing to be a job people stay in until retirement.

The State Raises the Allowance From 4% to 10%

The state has moved on pay. In 2025 it amended the Kyutoku Law, which pays no overtime and instead adds a flat teaching allowance, to raise that allowance from 4% to 10%[4] in stages. From January 2026 it rises one point a year, reaching 10% in 2031 — the first rise in the allowance since the law's enactment in 1971. But does adding money reach the root of why teachers fall mentally ill?

Short of Leaving, 7,087 Are on Sick Leave

Teachers who fall ill are far more numerous just short of leaving. By MEXT's personnel-administration survey, 7,087[5] public school teachers took leave for mental illness in FY2024. The base is the 922,776 education personnel counted on May 1 that year, so this is 0.77% of those in post[5]. In FY2015 it was 5,009, or 0.54%; both the count and the share have risen over a decade.

The year before, though, was higher. It is 32 fewer than the 7,119 of FY2023[6], with the share flat at 0.77%. This is not a number still climbing; it is a number stalled high. The record attrition sits at the end of that line of leave.

"Long Working Hours" Accounts for Only 0.5%

Here is a figure not to miss. Among the causes of leave that boards of education cite, "long working hours (overtime at school, and use of paid annual leave)" accounts for just 0.5%[5]. The top causes are teaching content at 26.5%, workplace relationships at 23.2%, and clerical work at 12.7%[5]. What drives teachers to the wall is less the sheer length of hours than the layering of teaching, relationships, and paperwork. Yet this is the boards of education's own read, and it does not rule out long hours working indirectly, through the wear of relationships and the glut of paperwork. It also matters, in reading these shares, that they are computed after excluding "other" and "not ascertained by the board of education."

Add Up the Relationships and It Comes to 38.2%

Group the causes differently and they wear another face. Add to workplace relationships at 23.2% both personal relationships (family, private life) at 8.9% and relationships with people outside the workplace (local residents, guardians) at 6.1%[5], and the total is 38.2% — almost level with the 39.2% of teaching plus clerical work. Close to four in ten teachers are worn down by a relationship with someone. And part of that someone stands outside the school.

One more: "worsening of a pre-existing mental illness" ranks fourth at 11.8%[5]. This is the category for people who were already ill and grew worse until they had to take leave. That a tenth of the causes sits here points to something apart from both pay and hours. What the amendment moves head-on is a monetary measure tied to working time. There lies a gap.

One Fewer Teacher Pushes Those Who Remain

One fewer teacher pushes those who remain still harder. When someone takes leave or quits, another must carry the load. A principal doubles as a homeroom teacher; a vice-principal takes classes. The teacher on whom the load concentrates breaks down next, and another vacancy opens. This downward spiral is turning in place after place.

The Pool for Filling Holes Has Actually Dried Up

And the pool to fill the holes is thin. That is not an impression; it shows in who gets hired. Sorting new hires at public elementary schools by what they were doing before, those brought onto the regular payroll from part-time teaching posts fell from 6,335 (34.7%) in FY2015 to 3,534 (19.0%) in FY2024[3]. New graduates rose in their place, from 45.1% to 64.4%[3]. The layer of part-time and temporary staff a school turns to when a vacancy opens has been drawn up into regular posts, and thinned. In FY2025 the hiring-exam ratio fell to a record-low 2.9[7], and for elementary schools to 2.0[7]. The lower the ratio, the harder the holes are to fill. Why teachers fall short, I examined through hiring ratios, the drying-up of temporary appointments, and the surge in special-needs classes in a separate column（このサイトの記事）.

"Unlimited Work at a Fixed Rate," and What 10% Means

The Kyutoku Law, under the fiction of "not ordering" overtime, has paid no premium matched to actual overtime and processed it all through a flat allowance. That is why it is called "unlimited work at a fixed rate." Raising the allowance from 4% to 10% is a step toward rewarding the work. But unless the structure of working beyond the limit itself changes, money eases the pain while the cause of the pain remains. The amendment also requires each board of education to draw up a plan to manage workload and secure health, setting a goal of cutting overtime to about 30 hours a month on average by FY2029[8]. Yet false records shorter than reality, and hitting the target by shifting work to be taken home, are forbidden. The same guideline also calls for redistributing work — moving clerical tasks like survey responses and grading to non-teachers — which overlaps with the clerical load cited as a cause of leave. Not a target met on paper, but the actual volume of teaching and paperwork cut. Measure the wrong thing and a target can be met while the ground gets worse (designing outcome indicators（このサイトの記事）). The substance of the amendment I also took up in a column on regional gaps（このサイトの記事）.

People Who Came Back Are Falling Again

There is another group money does not move. "Worsening of a pre-existing mental illness," fourth among the causes at 11.8%, covers people who had already fallen ill and got worse. How far it takes in relapse after returning to work cannot be read from this survey. Still, it shows that a number of teachers are working while under treatment, and that their worsening accounts for a tenth of the causes. That the count on leave has stalled in the 7,000s while attrition hits a record says both roads are narrow: the road back from leave, and the road out of it. Raise the allowance, and if the work waiting on return is the same, the same thing happens.

Rewarding With Money and Changing the Work Are Separate

Rewarding with money and changing how people work are separate tasks. Raising the teaching allowance steps into the first. But as long as the causes of falling ill lie in teaching, relationships, and paperwork, the line leaving the classroom will not stop until the second is reached. The record 1,319 is not a number that vanishes once the lag in pay is closed; it remains as homework on how to lighten the work itself.

Further Reading

• 聖職と労働のあいだ 「教員の働き方改革」への法理論 (Between Sacred Calling and Labor: A Legal Theory for Teachers' Work-Style Reform)（外部サイト、新しいタブで開きます） (Satoshi Takahashi, Iwanami Shoten, 2022) — a legal-theory account of the structure and contradictions of the Kyutoku Law and the concept of "working time" the amendment puts in question. (In Japanese.)

References

School Teacher Statistics Survey (FY2025 Interim Report) — Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology

Survey on the Personnel Administration of Public School Staff (FY2024) — Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology

Outline of the Bill to Amend the Act on Special Measures concerning Salaries of Education Personnel — Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology

Key Points of the Revised Guideline on Securing Education Personnel's Health — Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology

Results of FY2025 Public School Teacher Hiring Examinations — Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology