{
  "id": 12112987,
  "title": "Teacher mental health leave rises in Japan, burdening principals",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/05/teacher-mental-health-leave-rises-in-japan-burdening-principals",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-10-05T08:51:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Mainichi",
    "slug": "the-mainichi",
    "url": "https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20261005/p2a/00m/0na/016000c"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In Japan, over 7,000 public school teachers took mental health leave during both fiscal 2023 and 2024, according to the education ministry. This surge in teacher mental health leave is straining school administrators who must manage these cases. A survey by Kyoiku no Mori, a nonprofit organization in Tokyo, found that 89.9% of surveyed principals had experience managing staff on mental health leave. The majority (40.5%) dealt with two to three cases, while 35.1% handled four or more. The top challenge cited was securing substitute staff and distributing workload evenly (87.0%), followed by difficulties in sharing information with the staff member's doctor (67.1%) and deciding how to conduct meetings (63.7%). Principals expressed concerns about potential repercussions for their own words or actions, as well as the emotional burden of advising teachers. The organization recommended that boards of education create specialized support teams for teachers returning from mental health leave, provide immediate substitute staffing, and offer protective measures for administrators' mental health.",
  "summary": "TOKYO -- More than 7,000 public school teachers in Japan took leave due to mental illness in both fiscal 2023 and fiscal 2024, according to the educat",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}