Japan's education subsidies are extremely low

An education ministry report shows that Japan's expenditure on education at the national and local levels is the lowest among 30 OECD countries.

According to the ministry's "international comparison", Japan spends only 3.5 percent of its GDP on education systems from pre-school to higher education institutions. (Turkey spends 3.4 percent but this does not include direct public subsidies.) Denmark topped the list at 6.4 percent.

The amount of Japan's household expenditure on education was 1.2 percent of the nation's GDP, the fourth highest among the 30 states, while Finland, Norway, and Germany were the lowest at 0.1 percent.

In Japan, the tuition fee is 773,800 yen (about 7,000 dollars) including the admission fee for state-run universities, and 1,288,500 yen (on average) for private institutions. (end)