TOKYO - Local governments across Japan are stepping up efforts to recruit people who hold teaching licenses but are not working in schools, known as "paper teachers," as a worsening teacher shortage has seen the national ratio of applicants to available elementary school teaching positions fall from 12.5 in fiscal 2000 to just 2 in 2025.
The initiative is gaining attention as education authorities struggle to secure enough teachers for public schools. Paper teachers include both former educators who have left the profession and people who obtained teaching qualifications but have never worked in a classroom.
According to a survey by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, competition for public school teaching positions has declined sharply over the past 25 years. The national applicant-to-position ratio for junior high schools dropped from 17.9 in fiscal 2000 to 3.6 in 2025, while the ratio for elementary schools fell from 12.5 to 2 over the same period.
The figures highlight growing difficulties in attracting applicants, particularly in regions where the number of candidates is barely sufficient to fill available positions.
In Toyama Prefecture, the applicant-to-position ratio for special-needs schools has fallen to 0.7, meaning there are fewer applicants than available positions. Akita Prefecture has a ratio of 1.1 for elementary schools, while Niigata Prefecture records 1.2 for special-needs schools and Miyazaki Prefecture has 1.2 for elementary schools.
To address the shortage, local governments are introducing recruitment programs designed to encourage qualified but inactive teachers to enter or return to education.
Yamanashi Prefecture has launched training sessions specifically for paper teachers, with three sessions planned during the current fiscal year. The program targets people interested in working in schools but who may be uncertain about employment conditions, professional responsibilities or opportunities to balance teaching with other commitments.
Participants receive explanations about teachers' working arrangements and employment conditions, as well as opportunities for individual consultations. They can also register on the spot as prospective instructors who may be contacted when vacancies arise.
The sessions have attracted a variety of participants, including company employees and homemakers.
One woman in her 30s, who has a teaching license but no classroom experience, attended because she wanted to explore whether teaching could fit around raising her children.
"I participated because I wanted to know whether there were working arrangements that would allow me to teach while raising children," she said.
Following the session, she registered as a prospective instructor, making it possible for local education authorities to contact her when a suitable position becomes available.
Osaka has adopted an unusual approach to finding potential teachers by using water bill notices as a recruitment channel.
The city has printed information about school observation visits for paper teachers on the reverse side of water charge notices, allowing the recruitment message to reach households that might otherwise have little contact with education authorities.
Osaka has approximately 1.2 million households with water service contracts, providing a potentially extensive audience for the campaign. Although the number of qualified but inactive teachers among those households is unknown, the initiative has already encouraged some residents to register as prospective instructors.
The strategy reflects the increasingly broad efforts being made by municipalities to identify people who possess teaching qualifications but have pursued careers outside education or stepped away from classroom work because of family or personal circumstances.
However, recruiting teachers with little practical experience or lengthy gaps in their careers has raised concerns about the potential impact on students.
Schools must ensure that children receive consistent, high-quality instruction, and questions remain about whether inexperienced or returning teachers can immediately handle the responsibilities of classroom management and student support.
Education adviser Akihiro Shimizu cautioned that schools should not expect paper teachers to become fully effective from their first day.
"It is important for schools not to regard them as immediately ready to contribute," Shimizu said.
He warned that assigning newly recruited teachers full responsibility for a class during their first year could leave them struggling to manage workloads, limit their personal time and increase the risk of professional isolation.
Instead, schools should establish arrangements that allow new and returning teachers to consult experienced colleagues whenever they encounter difficulties.
Providing practical guidance and a supportive working environment would help recruits adjust to classroom responsibilities while reducing the likelihood that they leave the profession again.
Despite these concerns, Shimizu identified several potential benefits of bringing people with different professional and personal backgrounds into schools.
Teachers who have worked in other industries can introduce students to perspectives and experiences that may be less familiar to educators who have spent their entire careers in classrooms.
Such diversity could help create environments where more children feel comfortable and supported, particularly students who respond positively to different approaches to learning and communication.
People with experience outside education may also be better positioned to explain how knowledge acquired at school is applied in everyday life and professional settings.
When students question the value of studying particular subjects, teachers with experience in other occupations can draw on practical examples to demonstrate how classroom learning connects with the wider world.
The recruitment drive has also highlighted the importance of allowing people to move between professions at different stages of their lives.
Responsibilities such as raising children or caring for elderly family members can make it difficult to remain in the same occupation continuously. More flexible employment arrangements could encourage qualified teachers who previously abandoned plans to work in education to reconsider their options.
Similar concerns affect other professions facing labor shortages, including the nursing and care sectors, where employment systems that accommodate changing family circumstances could help attract people back into the workforce.
Former Olympic track and field athlete Asuka Terada welcomed the possibility of bringing more people with varied life experiences into classrooms.
Speaking from the perspective of a parent, Terada said children increasingly need exposure to diverse values and ways of thinking.
She suggested that people who have worked in different industries or experienced life outside education could provide students with a broader range of knowledge and perspectives.
Terada also emphasized the value of students being able to seek advice from adults with firsthand experience of the challenges and opportunities they may encounter later in life.
For people who obtained teaching licenses but chose other career paths because of personal circumstances, local recruitment programs could provide an opportunity to reconsider a profession they once hoped to enter.
Nevertheless, education specialists caution that bringing paper teachers into classrooms is unlikely to solve Japan's underlying teacher shortage on its own.
Shimizu said recruiting inactive license holders could help fill vacancies in the short term but would not provide a fundamental solution to the staffing crisis.
The challenge for local governments and education authorities is therefore not only to identify qualified people who are currently outside the profession, but also to create working conditions and support systems that allow teachers to remain in schools over the longer term.
Source: TBS
