According to the 2026 edition of the OECD’s international comparison report on education, 33% of students in Japan who major in education become teachers after graduation, well below the OECD average of 53%. Salaries for lower-secondary school teachers are below the OECD average, while teaching hours are shorter but working hours are longer, with teachers also handling many duties outside the classroom.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published the 2026 edition of its international comparison report on education, “Education at a Glance,” noting that although Japan’s teacher shortage is not among the most severe, the share of students who major in education and become teachers after graduation is low, at 33%.
Salaries for lower-secondary school teachers are below the OECD average, while teaching hours are shorter than the OECD average. Despite this, actual working hours are longer, and teachers also handle duties outside the classroom, including responding to parents and counselling students.
The share of “second-career teachers” recruited from other industries as a measure to address teacher shortages stood at 0.9% in Japan in 2024, compared with the OECD average of 8.4% at the lower-secondary level. Government spending as a percentage of GDP was 2.7% in 2023, 1.5 percentage points below the OECD average and the third-lowest among 42 countries.
Andreas Schleicher, Director of the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills, said it was important for Japan to create an environment in which support outside the classroom and building relationships with parents lead to better learning outcomes, even if teaching is not financially attractive.