Who to call when something goes wrong at school: the ladder inside the school, and the lines outside it

When something goes wrong at a Japanese school, there is an order in which people expect to hear about it, and a set of outside lines that work in parallel. Knowing both saves weeks. The key words are 相談 (sōdan, a consultation or request for advice), 面談 (mendan, a meeting with a teacher) and 教育委員会 (kyōiku iinkai, the board of education that runs your ward's or city's public schools).

The ladder, in order

This order is how public schools work in practice, not a rule printed anywhere. MEXT's handbook for receiving foreign children does, however, give each level its own chapter: the homeroom teacher (在籍学級担任の役割), the school's managers (学校管理職の役割) and the municipal board (市町村教育委員会の役割).

Step	Who	What they can usually do
1	担任 (tannin, homeroom teacher)	Everything about your child's day: seating, friendships, lunch, homework, a first look at a bullying report
2	学年主任 (gakunen shunin, head of the grade)	Coordinates the grade's teachers; families go here when the 担任 is the problem or does not reply
3	副校長 / 教頭 (fukukōchō / kyōtō, vice principal)	Runs the school day to day; handles complaints about staff
4	校長 (kōchō, principal)	Decides placements, class changes and the Japanese-language special curriculum
5	The ward or city 教育委員会	Owns the school; receives complaints the school cannot settle. Division names differ by ward: ask the switchboard for 学校のことで相談できる窓口
6	東京都教育相談センター (Tokyo only)	Outside advice and, on Fridays, an interpreter

Skipping steps is read as a breakdown, and the matter is usually sent back down to the 担任 anyway. Go up one step at a time, and say at each step that you have already spoken to the step below.

The lines outside the school

Line	Number	Hours	Who answers
24時間子供SOSダイヤル (MEXT)	0120-0-78310, toll-free	24 hours	A counselling line for children; the MEXT page lists bullying and being hit at home among the worries it is for. It does not say who answers
東京都教育相談センター: 教育相談一般・東京都いじめ相談ホットライン	0120-53-8288	Not printed on the page read	Tokyo's board. 友人関係やいじめに関する相談、子育てに関する相談や、学校生活に関する相談
Same centre, interpreter-assisted	0120-53-8288	Friday afternoons	English, Chinese, Korean, for foreign children's schooling and next-school questions
Same centre, 高校進級・進路・入学相談	03-3360-4175	In-person visits need a booking	Public high-school transfers, re-entry, dropping out
こどもの人権110番 (Ministry of Justice)	0120-007-110, free	Weekdays 8:30–17:15	法務局職員又は人権擁護委員 — adults worried about a child may call; 相談は無料、秘密は厳守します

The MEXT page's own words: 不安や悩みがあるときは、一人で悩まず、いつでもすぐ相談してください。 The human-rights line also takes email, LINE and letters, and warns that some IP phones cannot connect. It is a consultation service; the page does not describe any power over a school. The Tokyo centre also links a メール相談 and an SNS consultation. Kawasaki and Yokohama families: your city board runs its own 教育相談 line; the Tokyo centre is for Tokyo.

Two more lines run through the school itself. Most public schools have a スクールカウンセラー (school counsellor) on set days; ask the 担任 which day and book through the school (a common pattern, not a rule on these pages). And if the problem is bullying, the law gives the school duties of its own: see what the school must do about bullying.

The trap for a foreign family

Two opposite mistakes. One is calling the board or a hotline first; the school then hears about it second-hand and the 担任 feels bypassed. The other is saying nothing because the Japanese is hard, or writing a sensitive matter in the 連絡帳 (renrakuchō, the contact notebook your child carries): the child and sometimes classmates read it, and teachers answer in two lines. For anything more than logistics, ask for a 面談.

What to say, and what to bring

To ask for a meeting:

担任の先生にご相談したいことがあります。面談のお時間をいただけますでしょうか。

To move up a step:

担任の先生にはお話ししましたが、まだ解決していません。学年主任の先生か副校長先生にもご相談したいです。

To ask for language help:

日本語が十分ではないので、通訳をお願いできますか。

Bring dates, what your child said in their own words, photos of injuries or damaged items, and the relevant 連絡帳 pages. Bring a friend who reads Japanese if you can; the school may or may not find an interpreter.

Keep a written record

After every conversation, write down the date, who you spoke to, what was said and what was agreed, and send a short confirmation the same day so the school has the same record:

本日はありがとうございました。確認のため、お話しした内容をまとめます。

Then list the points and the date you will next speak. A first email or letter needs only five lines: your name and your child's class; what happened, with dates; what you have already done; what you are asking for; when you can meet.

What it costs

All the numbers above are free or a normal local call. Local 法務局 office numbers, which the ministry page links separately, charge normal call fees.

What goes wrong

• A hotline is treated as a complaint to the school. It is not; nothing reaches the school unless you take it there.
• The Friday interpreter window is missed and the Tokyo centre is then Japanese-only.
• Nothing is written down, and three months later nobody agrees what was said.
• The 担任 changes in April and the new one has never heard of the problem. Re-send your summary every April.

What to do now

1. Save the three outside numbers in your phone with their hours.
2. Ask the 担任 which day the school counsellor comes.
3. Start a dated log today, even for small things.
4. Raise the issue with the 担任 first, in a 面談, and confirm it in writing.
5. Verify the board's consultation window with your ward office.