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The story
News that public elementary and junior high school teachers’ monthly salary has risen to ¥364,069 — with bonus-included annual income estimated at ¥7,222,979 for high school teachers — became a hot topic on 5ch’s News Flash+ board. The thread mixed complaints like “only ¥7 million at 40 is cheap” and “you can’t live on this in Tokyo’s 23 wards” with counterarguments that, once you factor in regional allowances and household income, teachers are actually quite comfortable — and the discussion spiraled into the burdens of club-activity coaching and dealing with parents.
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How much are public “elementary and junior high school teachers’” monthly pay, bonuses, and annual income, roughly?
Let’s start by looking at the salaries of teachers working at public elementary and junior high schools.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
If you really can't survive on this, Tokyo's population would be way smaller.
Living alone, you can't live large, but you can live normally.
Raising kids on it, though, you'd be a poor household.
Don't a lot of teachers live out around Koganei (a cheaper Tokyo suburb)?
There's a range on the regional allowance — in Tokyo it's roughly +¥1 million.
For a truly remote posting (like Rebun Island), it's more like +¥2 million. That fades to about half after around 3 years.
The cheapest spot to be stationed is some bland, unremarkable rural area.
It's less than it used to be, but things have still gotten worse.
Middle schoolers getting 'doodles' (i.e. tattoos) — so very Reiwa.
Even back in the Showa era, you didn't see kids covered head-to-toe in traditional Japanese (wabori-style) tattoos.
A middle schooler with ink is crossing a line — very Reiwa.
Not bad, but no room for luxury.
Just the right number to keep you tame and compliant.
Teachers often marry other teachers, so by their late 40s household income tops ¥15 million.
Out in the countryside, housing is cheap enough that you can live pretty well on that.
I'll take that amount in my late 20s, thanks.
Civil servants get generous allowances and fat pensions too.
Basically unpaid.
They should actually teach kids some numeracy.
To begin with, rural teachers often come from well-off families with deep local roots.
Since they know the ins and outs of the school system and academic credentials, quite a few of them put their kids into pricey private combined junior-senior high schools, aiming for upward mobility.
It's a common pattern for a teacher's own parents (both of them) to be teachers too.
The 'teachers are poor' thing really is a myth.
Not filthy rich, but way better off than the average household.
well, let's set aside whether teachers count as 'adults' in the working world.
Back in the day there was this vibe that it was fine for a teacher to get physical with students, but that's not the case anymore, so it must be rough now.
Well yeah —
the average isn't being pulled from 50-somethings.
Do they shrink class sizes to keep the number of classes the same?
When I was a kid, classes had 40 students, but now it sounds like it's under 30.
Still, teachers are expected to handle a lot more than they used to, so I'd guess it's tough.
Education departments are disappearing from regional national universities.
They're not needed, so there's no point training them with government money.
Yeah right.
A university professor would be well above that.
If you want more money, quit taking it easy and go grind it out in the private sector.
They chose to become teachers, so all I can say is don't complain.
Teachers are the real monsters, if anything.
If they've got time for all those scandals and crimes, surely they've got time to coach a club.
A business owner once told me that's true of literally every job.
Classic civil servant, clueless about the real world.
Correction: it's teachers who are clueless about the real world.
Whether or not you know the real world,
employment runs on supply and demand —
and the fact is, when there's a labor shortage, you have to raise pay or nobody signs up.
Do they even deserve a raise?
They're the punching bag for both the students and their parents.
Not even a little.
Thoroughly weeding out problem teachers (those caught in scandals/misconduct) should come first.
The reason nobody wants the job isn't the pay — it's that.
Background and talking points
Public teacher pay runs on a single nationwide salary table, topped up with regional allowances and remote-area allowances, so actual annual income swings a lot depending on whether you’re in a city or out on a remote island or in the mountains. In the thread, reply >>17 spells out the regional gap concretely — “about +¥1 million in Tokyo, +¥2 million on a remote island” — which shows how little a single national average actually reveals.
Where opinions split was on one specific question: is this income actually fair? Some pointed to the load of club-activity coaching and parent-handling and called it “effectively unpaid,” while others argued that once you count household income, pensions, and allowances, teachers are quite well off. The remark that “the idea that teachers are poor is a myth that doesn’t match reality” reads as a direct counterpoint to those stressing just how heavy the workload is.
One thing readers can easily get wrong: the ¥7.22 million figure in the article is just a rough average — actual numbers vary a lot by age, region, and family situation. Worth being wary of letting that average take on a life of its own.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (News Flash+) thread “Public elementary and junior high school teachers’ monthly salary rose to ¥364,069. With bonuses added, the estimated annual income for high school teachers is “¥7,222,979”.”
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