Tokyo to Set Teacher Guidelines on “Monster Parents”

Tokyo, Nov. 6 (Jiji Press)–The Tokyo metropolitan government’s board of education on Thursday drafted an outline of proposed guidelines to help school teachers respond to unreasonable demands from parents and guardians, and presented it to an expert panel. The outline states that teachers’ meetings with parents and guardians should be held for only up to 30 minutes after school on weekdays and that their conversations made either over the phone or in person should be recorded in principle. The guidelines, to be created on the basis of a customer harassment prevention ordinance that the Tokyo government introduced in April, the first of its kind in Japan, and aimed at enabling teachers and other school staff to work with peace of mind, are expected to be finalized by the end of March 2026. According to the board, there are cases in which teachers are forced to spend time at schools dealing with “monster parents,” who repeatedly make unreasonable demands. The board established the expert panel in May to discuss detailed countermeasures, concluding that the customer harassment prevention ordinance could apply to schools as well. The draft outline stipulates that the initial contact between teachers and parents or guardians, whether in-person at school or over the phone, should be limited to scheduling future communications. It suggests that two or more teachers should take part in the first and second meetings and that the third and fourth meetings should be attended mainly by teachers in managerial positions. From the fourth meeting, lawyers and psychologists should also be present to support teachers, and lawyers should be the sole participants from the school side in the fifth and further meetings, according to the draft. The draft outline proposes that about five teachers should deal with parents and guardians acting beyond socially accepted norms. It also advises schools to contact the police to handle parents and guardians committing verbal abuse and violence or refusing to leave. Additionally, the draft calls for providing mental health care to teachers who have suffered verbal abuse or other harmful acts. The board plans to introduce the guidelines at Tokyo metropolitan elementary, junior high and high schools from fiscal 2026. The guidelines will be shared with the boards of education at municipalities in Tokyo. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]