The latest OECD survey underscores the continuing problem of overworked Japanese schoolteachers, who spend far more time on the extracurricular activities and clerical tasks at their schools than their counterparts in other countries. To reduce the heavy workload of many schoolteachers, the education ministry in January adopted a guideline that in principle limits each teacher's overtime hours to 45 hours a month and 360 hours annually — in line with the government's drive to cap the Japanese workers' overtime as part of its work-style reform campaign. But to make sure that regulations are effectively followed, schools need to make more efforts to sort out the teachers' core tasks and jobs that can be done by others.

In its 2018 "Teaching and Learning International Survey," the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development examined the work environment of teachers and learning environment at schools in 48 countries and regions that took part in the probe. In the third survey since 2008, 3,568 junior high school teachers, 3,321 elementary school teachers, and about 200 principals at such schools across Japan were surveyed between February and March last year.

According to the survey, junior high school teachers in Japan worked the longest hours among the OECD countries. They labored an average of 56 hours per week — 2.1 hours longer than in the last survey in 2013 and well above the average of 38.3 hours among all countries polled. Teachers at elementary schools were also found to be working the longest hours — 54.4 hours a week — among the 15 nations and regions that took part in the survey on elementary schools.