The government Tuesday decided to raise adjustment allowances for public school teachers, paid instead of overtime, gradually to 10% of base salaries from the current 4%.
The rate will rise to 5% in fiscal 2025 and reach 10% eventually in fiscal 2030. Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato and Education Minister Toshiko Abe agreed on the hike in their Tuesday meeting.
The allowances are stipulated in the special measures law on public school teacher salaries. The hike, expected to start in January 2026 during fiscal 2025, would be the first since the law came into force in 1972.
"The environment surrounding teachers will change drastically" due to the hike, Abe told a news conference after her meeting with Kato.
She also outlined plans to implement work style reforms for teachers, aiming to reduce average monthly overtime hours by about 30% to 30 hours over the five years through fiscal 2029.
The two ministers also agreed to increase the number of public school teachers by 5,827 in fiscal 2025 to alleviate workload pressures and realize 35-student classes at junior high schools between fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2028.
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