Principals and others pay 37 million yen out of pocket for school lunches, teaching materials, etc. There are limits to how much money can be left to the school to collect.

In November, it was revealed in Kizugawa City, Kyoto Prefecture, that schools had left behind about 54 million yen in unaccounted fees for school lunches and teaching materials collected from parents, and that elementary school principals had paid about 37 million yen of this amount out of their own pockets without reporting it.

The principal's explanation also reveals the hardships faced by school staff who are busy with work. We tracked the background of the problem and efforts to reduce the burden on teachers and staff.

"Many staff members were absent, and it was a difficult time to manage the school properly, so I didn't want to make it a big deal. I wanted to take care of things myself and keep things within the school."

In response to an investigation by the Kizugawa City Board of Education, the 50-year-old principal of a municipal elementary school explained why he used his own money to cover the shortfall in school lunch and teaching materials costs.

According to the city board of education, municipal elementary schools collected about 4,000 yen per child for school lunches and over 1,000 yen for teaching materials each month by debiting their accounts.

However, a total of approximately 54 million yen is believed to have been unpaid over the 13-year period up to the spring of 2025.

During this period, a former office worker in his 60s who was in charge of tax collection had supplemented approximately 20 million yen from his own and his family's accounts between fiscal years 2021 and 2024. Five past principals have said they were unaware of this situation.

The current principal, who took over in the spring of 2023, learned of the situation in the spring of 2024.

The school lunch center informed the school that the school lunch fees for the previous year had not been paid, and the principal paid the unpaid 4.77 million yen out of his own pocket. He was told by an office staff member that the money was due to ``administrative issues not being organized,'' and that he thought he would receive a refund eventually.

The principal's ``out-of-pocket'' bulges

However, the former administrative staff resigned in the spring of 2025 without receiving any refunds. In May 2015, the principal received claims from two vendors for unpaid teaching materials, and paid an additional 2.47 million yen out of his own pocket.

After that, a successor employee said, ``Account...