How to become a School Nurse Teacher
Also called: School health room teacher
Works mainly in the health room of a primary, junior high or senior high school, promoting school health.
Main tasks
- Giving first aid in the health room to students injured or unwell at school
- Watching the physical and mental state of students who come to the health room closely and listening to them to spot emotional problems early
- Sharing information with class teachers and others to deal with students' physical and mental health problems and health care
- Preparing for routine health checks, such as arranging the schedule within the school, contacting the school doctor and drawing up the plan
- Telling students their health check results
- Analysing health check results to identify health issues in the school
- Giving health guidance before school events such as excursions, school trips and sports days, and before the summer holidays, on looking after your health, dealing with injuries and illness, and preventing heatstroke and infections
- Team teaching in lessons on health topics when asked by class teachers and others
- Preparing paperwork for injury benefit claims for students who are hurt
- Keeping records of health room use and organising the data
- Managing the school's environmental hygiene by checking classroom lighting levels, ventilation, temperature and humidity, noise, and tap water quality
How to become one
To work as a school nurse teacher (yogo kyoyu) you need a school nurse teacher licence. You can gain one by completing the required credits at a university or similar that offers a school nurse teacher training course. If you already hold a registered nurse or public health nurse licence, you can complete fewer credits than usual at a university or similar and then apply to your prefectural board of education for the licence. After gaining the licence, to work at a public school you must pass the local government's teacher recruitment exam, and to work at a national or private school you must pass that school corporation's recruitment exam. Partly because few school nurse teachers are hired, competition is fiercer than for other teachers. At public schools, transfers happen regularly and you may move to different kinds of schools. It varies by local government, but while gaining experience as a school nurse teacher you can move through senior teacher, chief teacher or mentor teacher posts, and by passing selection or review, become a vice-principal, principal or other manager. A school nurse teacher in principle handles all health care in the school alone, so working with other staff is essential. You also deal a lot with outside organisations and parents as well as school staff, so you need the communication skills to work and share information with many people, and the coordination skills to gather and pull together different views. Because you are directly involved in students' physical and mental health, you need specialist knowledge of student health care and physical and mental development, as well as psychological support skills to listen to, understand and empathise with others.
Ways in
- University: Nursing & Midwifery degrees, Offered by 79 universities in Japan
- University: Education & Teaching degrees, Offered by 82 universities in Japan
- National licence or qualification: Listed by job tag as a qualification related to this job (関連資格): 養護教諭免許（専修・１種・２種）. Needed to do this job (Peernovo, from job tag's entry description). English name and classification by Peernovo.
Pay · Job openings · AI and this job
- Average annual income: ¥7,351,700 Private sector only: employers with 10 or more staff. Public servants, such as public school teachers and police officers, are not in these figures.
- Monthly base pay (before overtime and bonus): median ¥432,700, and the middle half earn ¥336,100 to ¥542,100 a month.
- Pay measured for the wage survey group: Elementary and lower secondary school teachers
- 0.80 job openings per applicant at Hello Work (2025). A current demand signal, not a projection. It counts only the jobs and job seekers registered at Hello Work, Japan's public employment offices, and many graduate and professional hires never pass through it.
- Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.
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Questions people ask
How do I become a School Nurse Teacher?
To work as a school nurse teacher (yogo kyoyu) you need a school nurse teacher licence. You can gain one by completing the required credits at a university or similar that offers a school nurse teacher training course. If you already hold a registered nurse or public health nurse licence, you can complete fewer credits than usual at a university or similar and then apply to your prefectural board of education for the licence. After gaining the licence, to work at a public school you must pass the local government's teacher recruitment exam, and to work at a national or private school you must pass that school corporation's recruitment exam. Partly because few school nurse teachers are hired, competition is fiercer than for other teachers. At public schools, transfers happen regularly and you may move to different kinds of schools. It varies by local government, but while gaining experience as a school nurse teacher you can move through senior teacher, chief teacher or mentor teacher posts, and by passing selection or review, become a vice-principal, principal or other manager. A school nurse teacher in principle handles all health care in the school alone, so working with other staff is essential. You also deal a lot with outside organisations and parents as well as school staff, so you need the communication skills to work and share information with many people, and the coordination skills to gather and pull together different views. Because you are directly involved in students' physical and mental health, you need specialist knowledge of student health care and physical and mental development, as well as psychological support skills to listen to, understand and empathise with others.
How much does a School Nurse Teacher earn in Japan?
Average annual income in the private sector, bonus included, is ¥7,351,700 (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare). The figure is for the wage survey group Elementary and lower secondary school teachers, which covers several jobs.
Do you need a degree to become a School Nurse Teacher?
Usually. In this job's census occupation group, 91% of workers are university graduates.
Will AI change the work of a School Nurse Teacher?
Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.
Sources
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare: Basic Survey on Wage Structure (賃金構造基本統計調査) 2025: earnings by occupation (2025 survey (June 2025 pay, 2024 bonus), published 2026-03-24), Government Standard Terms of Use 2.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare: Employment Referrals for General Workers (一般職業紹介状況): Hello Work job-openings-to-applicants ratio by occupation (2025 annual (release of 2026-10-02)), Government Standard Terms of Use 2.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
- Statistics Bureau of Japan (MIC): 2020 Population Census (令和2年国勢調査) detailed sample tabulation: employed by occupation, sex, age and education (2020 Census (tables 9-1 and 15-1, published 2022-12-27)), Government Standard Terms of Use 2.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
- JILPT (職業情報データベース) via MHLW job tag: job tag download data: 解説系 (descriptions, how to become, related qualifications) and 簡易版数値系 (interests, tasks, education) (解説系 ver.7.01 (2026-06-04); 簡易版数値系 ver.7.00 (2026-03-17)), retrieved 4 October 2026
- International Labour Organization, Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure (ILO Working Paper 140, Gmyrek et al.) (ILO Working Paper 140, May 2025, Annex Table A1), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
独立行政法人労働政策研究・研修機構（JILPT）作成 職業情報データベース 解説系ダウンロードデータ（IPD_DL_description_7_01.xlsx）ver.7.01 職業情報提供サイト（job tag）より2026年10月4日にダウンロード（https://shigoto.mhlw.go.jp/User/download）を加工して作成
独立行政法人労働政策研究・研修機構（JILPT）作成 職業情報データベース 簡易版数値系ダウンロードデータ（IPD_DL_numeric_7_00.xlsx）ver.7.00 職業情報提供サイト（job tag）より2026年10月4日にダウンロード（https://shigoto.mhlw.go.jp/User/download）を加工して作成
Sources: JILPT Occupational Information Database download data via job tag (解説系 ver.7.01 and 簡易版数値系 ver.7.00, downloaded 4 October 2026), processed by Peernovo; MHLW, Basic Survey on Wage Structure 2025; Statistics Bureau of Japan, 2020 Population Census; MEXT, School Basic Survey 2025; MHLW, Employment Referrals for General Workers (Hello Work statistics). Figures processed by Peernovo. English job names, translations and the matching of jobs to statistical groups, schools and degree fields by Peernovo.
Updated 4 October 2026