Evaluating the Effect of School Work Style Reform in Japan

• In Event: Global Educational Discourses, Policy Diffusion, and National Models in East Asia

Proposal

This study investigates the effect of Japan’s recent work style reform in public schools, a national policy initiative to address excessive teacher workloads. According to a national survey by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT, 2017), public school teachers in Japan worked more than 11 hours per day. In response to growing concerns about long working hours and overwork among teachers, MEXT issued a formal notification in 2019 to reinforce work style reforms in public schools. The reform seeks to improve teachers’ working conditions, reduce long working hours, and promote sustainable and effective school management (MEXT, 2019). However, national surveys show only modest reductions in reported working hours—about 30 minutes per day from 2016 to 2023 (MEXT, 2024), which raises questions about the effect of the reform.
Theoretical Support and Previous Research
Although previous research has found that long working hours are generally associated with lower teacher job satisfaction (Eades-Baird & Qiao, 2024; Sorensen et al., 2016), other studies suggest that reducing workload alone may not automatically lead to improved well-being (Butt & Lance, 2005; Jerrim & Sims, 2020). This indicates that the relationship between working hours and job satisfaction is context-dependent and may vary by policy environment and school practices. Therefore, investigating how Japan’s work style reform has affected teacher outcomes is important to the literature on teacher working conditions and education policy evaluation.
Research questions
This study aims to address the following research questions:
1. How does work style reform affect teacher outcomes?
2. To what extent do the effects of the work style reform vary by teacher characteristics such as school location, years of experience, and gender?
Data and Measures
This study uses data from the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2013, 2018, and 2024 (expected release in Fall 2025). TALIS is a large-scale dataset on school environments and teacher working conditions that employs two-stage probability sampling: 200 schools were randomly selected, and then 20 teachers were randomly chosen from each school, resulting in approximately 4,000 observations per country (OECD, n.d.; OECD, 2019a). The representativeness of TALIS data enhances external validity, allowing the results to be generalized to the national population. I use Middle school data because Japan participated in TALIS 2013 for the first time at the middle school level (National Institute for Educational Policy Research, 2014).
Outcome variables include weekly working hours and teacher job satisfaction by self-report. OECD standardized these scales as the 10 of midpoints, which suggests that a score above 10 is positive (e.g., agree) and a score below 10 means negative (e.g., disagree) for the measurement of job satisfaction (OECD, 2014; OECD, 2019b).
The key independent variable is a binary indicator for public school teachers in Japan as the treatment group. I also include covariates such as gender, age group, school location, and other variables related to working conditions.
Analytic approach
This study employs a Difference-in-Differences (DiD) approach to estimate the causal effect of the work style reform on teacher outcomes. Jerrim and Sims (2020) used TALIS data to explore the association between weekly working hours and teacher stress across OECD countries. However, their research primarily focused on associations among variables using multiple regression models and structural equation modeling (SEM), limiting internal validity. In contrast, this study contributes to the literature by estimating the causal effect of the policy reform in Japan. The primary assumption for the DiD analysis is the parallel trend assumption. Specifically, in the absence of the work style reform, the trends in working hours and job satisfaction would have been identical between the treatment group and the control group.
Limitations
One potential threat to internal validity is the few post-intervention periods, which concerns about the robustness of the effect. Another concern is the influence of COVID-19, which may have affected public and private schools differently in terms of work style and school operations. However, by focusing on Japan’s recent work style reform, this study will provide new evidence of the causal effect of education policy on teacher outcomes. It will also contribute to the growing body of international research on teacher workload and well-being.
Preliminary Findings
The descriptive result shows that public school teachers reported longer working hours across both survey waves than their private counterparts. Public school teachers reported longer working hours than their counterparts, widening the gap in 2018 (54.4 vs. 51.2 in 2013 and 56.8 vs. 48.4 in 2018). Regarding job satisfaction, public teachers reported slightly lower satisfaction with both the profession and the environment than private school teachers (environment: 10.9 vs. 11.0 in 2013 and 12.0 vs. 12.1 in 2018; profession: 11.6 vs 11.9 in 2013 and 11.4 vs. 11.7 in 2018).
To assess the validity of the Difference-in-Differences (DiD) design, I conducted a placebo DiD test using data from 2013 and 2018, prior to the implementation of Japan’s national work-style reform for teachers. The analysis compared Japanese public school teachers to Japanese private school teachers. Outcome variables were working hours and job satisfaction (environment and profession).
The results indicate that there are no significant differences observed between Japanese public teachers and private school teachers (job satisfaction in the environment (β = -0.031, p > .05) and job satisfaction in the profession (β = 0.034, p > .05)) except for working hours (β = 3.801, p < .05). These findings suggest parallel trend between the two groups, supporting its use of Japanese private school teachers as a valid comparison group although a small sample size should be considered in private schools. I will have completed the analysis of the newly released dataset by the time of the conference and will present the final results.
Contribution
This study contributes to the limited but growing body of causal research on teacher policy in Japan. By leveraging internationally comparable data and a quasi-experimental design, the study provides timely evidence of how national reforms shape teachers’ work lives. In doing so, it informs domestic and international discussions on teacher policy, work-life balance, and the sustainability of public education systems.

Author

• Kenta Nagasawa, Florida State University