“‘방과 후 노는 아이까지 봐달라' 요구 안돼”…일 정부 ‘일본식 참교육’ 지침 마련

The Japanese government has issued a guideline for schools across the country to help them deal with abusive behavior from parents, including threats to teachers. According to Yomiuri Shimbun, the guidelines will include criteria for judging whether a parent's behavior constitutes "bullying" and how schools should respond. The guidelines define parent requests for changes in a student's placement or dismissal of a caretaker teacher as "teacher bullying."

The guidelines also cite instances where parents demand that schools monitor their children playing in a park after school. However, the school is instructed to not leave teachers to handle conflicts alone and to instruct parents to request to leave if their demands are repeated. Teachers are allowed to refuse to answer calls for a certain amount of time after receiving excessive calls and can record conversations after obtaining prior consent from the parent.

In Japan, teachers continue to face difficulties due to excessive parent complaints. According to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Education last year, 4 out of 563 schools in 11 prefectures experienced "excessive complaints and unreasonable demands." Over 90% of teachers who faced such problems reported feeling "burdened by parent responses."

However, the Japanese government's approach differs somewhat from that in South Korea. Starting in October, Japan will require businesses to set up "customer abuse prevention measures" as part of a revised Labor Standards Act. Similarly, education authorities in Japan will be required to establish policies to protect teachers, just as they do for schools and education corporations.

The Ministry of Education describes the guidelines as emphasizing that "parents and local residents are partners in supporting children's growth" and stresses the need to appropriately address "behavior that falls outside socially acceptable limits" in order to protect both students and teachers.