Teacher interview
In order to deepen the content of this website, I spoke with a home economics teacher at our school. The teacher dealt with work-related issues in the class, and the content became the basic knowledge for creating the site for the second year high school students who attended.
This time, we received various opinions on the role of society in relation to labor.
Q1. What do you think about high school students working part-time?
High school students are supposed to study, so I think if they have time to work, they should study instead of working part time.
Q2. Today, labor shortage is a big problem in Japan. What do you think the society should do to solve this problem?
I think it is to create a society where people who want to work can work freely. At present, Japanese society has a strong tradition of working. For example, "gender division of labor".
*Gender Division of Labor (性別役割分業)
A social system in which roles are defined by gender within a society, such as the way of thinking like "Men should work outside, women should stay at home".
It is important that women can easily return to work when they want to work. Mid-career recruitment is not very familiar in Japan. Therefore, it is very rare to work as a regular employee after quitting once. I think the labor force in Japan will increase considerably if women work.
The idea of Confucianism has taken root in East Asia. It is thought that the idea of male chauvinism and the division of roles between men and women are rooted.
In Confucianism, "when they are young, women must follow their parents; when they are married, women must follow their husbands; when their husband die, women must follow their (in one's old age) son.". In the Analects of Confucius, it is written that "A woman and a dwarf are difficult to support, but if they are close to each other, they become irreverent, and if they are far away, they become resentful." which means that if a woman and an unvirtuous person get close to each other, they get carried away, and if they get away from each other, they hold grudges.
Also, "mandatory retirement" can be considered as one of the customs. The age of mandatory retirement is between 60 and 65. Due to the development of medical care, there are many people of that age with no health problems. Therefore, we should consider raising the retirement age further.
Q3. This is a customary question. What do you think of "seniority system"?
I think the seniority system itself makes sense. However, even if the system itself is not bad, there are bad effects, and the seniority system is no exception.
I think the power of the company is too strong for the power of employees in Japan today. Of course, as long as you're paid, you need to do what you need to do. However, I do not think it's right to sacrifice one's own life for the sake of being "nice guy".
Q4. I heard that teacher is very hard job compared to others, is it true?
That's true. In the old days, teachers were thought to be free. However, there is no difference between the past and the present due to busyness. I think it is bit late to the fact that the busyness of teachers has begun to known widely.
Public school teachers are not paid for overtime work under the "Act on Special Measures concerning Remuneration, etc. of Educational Personnel of Public Compulsory Education Schools, etc." or "special salary law".
According to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the average working hours of teachers per day is "11 hours and 15 minutes for elementary school teachers, 11 hours and 32 minutes for junior high school teachers" indicating that teachers are working long hours on average.
In addition, although the custom mentioned above remains, it is also true that Japaneses working style is changing. The trend of society as a whole may change as the generation who actually has power in the company changes.
Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule for our interview.