TOKYO -- A record 346,482 children in Japan were absent from school for 30 days or more at national, public and private elementary and junior high schools in the 2023 academic year, according to a survey by the education ministry.

The number represented an increase by 47,434 children, or 15.9%, from the 2022 academic year, and was revealed by the "survey on problematic behavior and school truancy" the ministry released on Oct. 31.

In Japan, when a student misses school for 30 days or more per school year due to factors other than illness or economic reasons, it is defined as long-term non-attendance. The most common reason given to teachers in their consultations with long-term absentee students was "lack of motivation." In many cases, the children do not receive sufficient support from specialists, and the education ministry is promoting measures such as securing places for them to belong to.

Long-term absentee students have increased in number for 11 consecutive years. An education ministry official analyzed that the rise is due to "a growing awareness among parents that long-term absences provide an opportunity to take a break and reflect on themselves."

In the 2023 academic year, 130,370 elementary school students and 216,112 junior high school students fell under this category, up 25,258 and 22,176, respectively, from the 2022 academic year. The higher the grades in both elementary and junior high school, the more that non-attendance occured, but the rate of increase tended to be higher toward the lower grades of elementary school. The education ministry believes the problem lies in how children advance from kindergarten and day care centers to elementary schools.

Until the previous survey, teachers had subjectively given the factors they thought caused non-attendance, but this time the format was changed to a multiple-choice selection of facts that teachers had ascertained, emphasizing objectivity, on the grounds that the past methods failed to accurately grasp the actual situation. As a result, the most common fact was "consultation about lack of motivation for school life," at 32.2%, followed by "consultation about anxiety or depression," at 23.1%. Since the most common factor in the previous survey was "apathy or anxiety," the same trend was seen even with the change in survey format.

Of those non-attending students, 134,368 elementary and junior high school students (an increase of 20,151 over the 2022 academic year) were not receiving professional guidance or consultation from counselors or private organizations, either at or outside of school. The education ministry claims that "the students are in contact with their homeroom teachers and are not being neglected," but this means that approximately one in 2.5 such students is not receiving adequate support from specialists.

Meanwhile, the number of bullying cases recognized also increased to 732,568 (up 50,620 from the 2022 academic year), and the number of "serious incidents," in which a student is suspected of suffering serious harm to life or physical or mental health or is forced to be absent from school for a long period of time, rose to 1,306 (up 387), both new highs. The education ministry believes the rise is due to "a more active recognition" of bullying cases.

(Japanese original by Buntaro Saito, Tokyo City News Department)