October 31, 2025
TOKYO – A record high of 353,970 elementary and junior high school students were chronically absent during the 2024 academic year, according to an education ministry survey.
The number of chronically absent students has increased for 12 consecutive years and almost doubled in the past five years, according to the ministry’s annual survey on problematic behavior and chronic school absenteeism in public and private elementary, junior high, high and special schools.
Chronic school absenteeism is defined as a student being away from school for 30 days or more in a year for reasons other than illness or economic difficulties.
According to the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry’s survey, the number of chronically absent elementary school students in the year through March 2025 climbed 5.6% from the previous academic year to 137,704, and the number of such junior high students inched up 0.1% to 216,266.
In total, 3.9% of all elementary and junior high school students were chronically absent during the 2024 academic year. In Japan, education is compulsory until the end of junior high school.
A record high of 191,958 students were absent from school for 90 days or more. “This situation remains extremely disturbing,” an official from the ministry’s Student Affairs Division told The Yomiuri Shimbun.
The number of chronically absent students jumped by about 50,000 in each of the three years from the 2021 academic year through the 2023 academic year. However, the figure increased by 7,488 in the 2024 school year.
A total of 135,724 students were not having consultations with mental health or welfare experts, or receiving guidance on their situation. This was an increase of 1,356 students from the previous year.
Two main reasons
GRAPHICS: THE YOMIURI SHIMBUN
Two main reasons have been cited for the surge in chronic absenteeism.
The first reason is the increasing prevalence in society of the view that children should not be forced to go to school. The law on securing educational opportunities, which took effect in 2017, broadened the range of learning places available outside of mainstream schools, such as alternative schools. Observers also believe that factors including the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused the temporary closure of schools across the nation, also accelerated this change in attitude toward school attendance.
At a public elementary school in the Kyushu region that has multiple chronically absent students, homeroom teachers have delivered letters to the children’s homes and suggested they take part in online classes. However, such attempts to boost school attendance have not always worked, with some parents repeatedly turning down offers of support. “My child wishes not to attend school,” one parent reportedly said.
This reaction has left the school struggling to deal with the situation. “We can’t grasp the children’s circumstances, which is frustrating,” the school’s 55-year-old principal said.
The second reason has been the inability of schools to provide swift, organized responses to instances of children who require special support because they have a disability or for other reasons, or who are unable to wake up in the morning. Among reasons schools have gleaned for why students were regularly absent, the number of cases blamed on “poor life rhythm” increased by 8,925 from the previous academic year, while “issues related to special needs such as a disability” were cited in 2,535 more cases than in the previous year.
It appears that on-the-ground support has been unable to keep up with the surge in absenteeism.
Creating comfortable spaces
GRAPHICS: THE YOMIURI SHIMBUN
As more children stay away from school, the education ministry is pushing ahead with efforts to create educational spaces in which children feel more comfortable and to bolster consultation services.
Since the 2020 academic year, the city of Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture, has steadily introduced in-school education support centers at five municipal elementary schools and 20 municipal junior high schools. These centers provide a space for children who find it difficult to go to school or their classrooms. The students using these centers can come and go at times that suit them, and are free to choose what they study. Highly trusted teachers at the school serve as homeroom teachers for students at these centers, which also have support staff available to lend an ear and provide advice.
“I couldn’t come to school if this center wasn’t here,” one student said.
In Hikari, Yamaguchi Prefecture, mental health experts and former teachers visit once or twice a week the homes of children who find attending school difficult. In the previous academic year, half of the children who received these visits reportedly returned to school and became able to go out and interact with people.
Tohoku University Associate Prof. Taketoshi Goto, an expert on absenteeism issues and educational administration, said, “If a child is absent from school for a prolonged period, they will fall further and further behind in their learning and, in some cases, find it harder to become an independent member of society.”
Goto added: “Schools should prepare to address this issue by taking steps such as having a teacher dedicated to dealing with absenteeism to help children feel enthusiastic about engaging in learning at their own pace. Schools also need to create an environment in which this approach isn’t treated as anything special.”