Politics & Government

70% of School Institutions in Japan Fail to Check New Database on Whether Job Applicants Have Records of Sexual Violence against Students

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
The building of the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry in Tokyo

The Yomiuri Shimbun

7:00 JST, December 24, 2025

About 70% of boards of education and school corporations have not checked a government-operated database to determine whether applicants for school jobs have been punished for committing sexual violence against students, according to a fact-finding investigation by the Education, Sports, Culture, Science and Technology Ministry.

The database is operated by the central government to enable school corporations to become aware of any past acts of sexual violence when newly employing teachers or school officials.

It was also found that since the operation of the database began, 40 people who had received punishments for that reason applied for jobs as teachers.

The operation of the database started in fiscal 2023 based on a law on the prevention of sexual violence by teachers or other school personnel.

The database records names and other information about former schoolteachers who were dismissed due to acts of sexual violence against students and pupils and consequently had their teaching licenses revoked.

The law obliges boards of education and other educational institutions to utilize the database when they plan to employ new teachers and school officials. Failing to do so constitutes violation of the law.

The fact-finding investigation was conducted on a total of 11,981 school institutions from August to December this year. Of them, 97 institutions have not replied.

Among 10,524 school institutions which had employed new teachers since fiscal 2023, there were 7,306, or 69.4%, that failed to check the database.

Reasons cited for not doing so included having only just become aware of the database’s existence or not having realized that consulting the database was obligatory.

Of the respondents, 34 school institutions discovered via the database that applicants for teaching jobs had records of receiving punishment for such offenses. A total of 40 such candidates applied for jobs at the schools but all were not employed.