On March 1, 2022, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) published the results of a survey on the status of classroom shortages in public schools for special needs education (SNE) as of October 1, 2021.

The survey covered all public SNE schools in prefectures and municipalities. Due to an increase in the number of learners with special educational needs, some SNE schools are temporarily admitting learners beyond the capacity of their classrooms. Against this background, the number of classroom shortages has occurred, which is 'the number of classrooms determined necessary to increase because of some problem + the projected number of classrooms needed in the future.'

The survey results show that there is a shortage of 3,740 classrooms nationwide. However, in comparing the previous survey (as of May 1, 2019), the number of classrooms has increased by 578. The prefectures with the most significant shortages are Osaka (528 classrooms), Tokyo (514 classrooms), and Chiba (220 classrooms), while the prefectures with the smallest shortages are Tottori (0 classrooms), Kochi (1 classroom), and Akita (3 classrooms).

For more information, please visit the website below (Japanese only):
https://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/houdou/mext_00860.html