Summary of Research Findings

In schools, it has become imperative to protect teachers and staff from harsh working conditions, such as long working hours and diverse workloads, and enable them to focus on teaching. Outsourcing services are increasingly being implemented as a solution to relieve teachers of cleaning classrooms, serving school lunches, doing deskwork, and other specific tasks.

Club activities, which have the potential to expand outsourcing services in schools, require tremendous workload. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) is promoting the outsourcing of some or all club activities, primarily at public junior high schools, to local operations. In association with the reform period by MEXT, the outsourcing of workloads, including those at demonstrations, is increasing. Consequently, the outsourcing service market for club activities is expected to increase by 30.8% year over year in 2024.

Noteworthy Topics

The implementation Period for Outsourcing Services for Locally Operated Club Activities Is Underway.

As a part of measures to reduce teachers’ workloads, MEXT is promoting the shift of club activities from school-wide to community-wide. The ministry has set the reform promotion period from FY2023 to FY2025, and the reform implementation period from FY2026 to FY2031. In May 2025, the Sports Agency and the Agency for Cultural Affairs announced the final decision regarding the reform of club activities. This decision was made by the "Executive Committee on Regional Sports, Cultural Arts Creation, and Club Activity Reform" participated by a panel of experts. The decision primarily concerned the realization that all club activities conducted on holidays and weekends would be developed on a community-wide basis.

This will likely lead to the outsourcing of school club activities to local organizations or private companies. While this is expected to have advantages, such as securing coaches and diversifying club activities, there are also disadvantages to consider, such as balancing beneficiaries’ expenses and public payments, and determining expense sharing. Since community-wide club activities are promoted by the government to reduce the teachers’ workloads, the market for club activity outsourcing services is expected to grow.

*) Source: Final Decision (Outline) of "Executive Committee on Regional Sports, Cultural Arts Creation, and Club Activity Reform" by the Sports Agency and the Agency for Cultural Affairs in May 2025.

Research Outline