Abstract
Over 30 years have passed since the introduction of the school counselor system, during which it has been implemented in all schools and the number of school counselors has steadily increased. However, concerns have been raised regarding the quality and job performance of school counselors, prompting ongoing research into
these issues. The purpose of this study was to reexamine the quality and job performance of school counselors, including their work styles, in light of the findings made in this area of research so far. First, researchers have noted the difficulty in establishing reliable indicators of job performance. For example, using the number of
incidents as a measure reveals that many school counselors are currently involved in post-event responsive capacity, and many school counselors are not involved in preventive measures. Although improved interventions may reduce the recurrence of events, new occurrences may still arise. This can be attributed to the diversification of school counselors’ work styles and the fact that many school counselors ultimately
provide only consultation services due to the large number of consultation requests they receive. Moreover, school counselors are often encouraged to take preventive measures such as holding consultations with teachers and providing psychological training. However, there ability to hold consultations can be constrained due to the preparations and other tasks involved in such activities. Some school counselors
experience challenges due to a lack of familiarity with these activities and absence of confidence in managing them. Given these issues, there is a need to extend the working hours of school counselors heavily engaged in consultation and to adjust their workloads in accordance with their actual duties. Strategies must be devised to
ease the psychological and time burdens associated with preventive activities for other school counselors, alongside efforts to raise awareness of the importance of psychological education offered by school counselors.