March 26, 2020

The Education Ministry on March 24 issued a notice calling on municipalities and school corporations to give special treatment, such as tuition exemption, to university and technical college students whose households have received a financial blow from the COVID-19 crisis.

At a House of Councilors Education Committee meeting a week ago, Japanese Communist Party lawmaker Kira Yoshiko pointed out that in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, more and more university students have expressed their concern about failure to pay their tuitions for economic reasons.

In this regard, Kira cited the fact that parents of university students are experiencing a substantial decrease in their incomes and that students working part-time jobs are facing the loss of their jobs. The JCP lawmaker demanded government measures to reduce the burden of tuition payments, including providing tuition waivers and postponements.