March 29, 2023

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Councilors Tamura Tomoko on March 28 at a House Budget Committee meeting said that if the Kishida government really intends to put a stop to Japan’s declining birthrate, it is vital to implement measures to reduce the household burden of education costs.

Tamura introduced a policy proposal released by the National Council of Workers’ Welfare (Rofukukyo) in March. In the proposal, the organization demanded that the government implement a package of measures to realize low-cost higher education, which includes the halving of tuition fees, the abolition of admission fees, and an increase in the number of students applicable to the grant-type scholarship program to 750,000.

Pointing out that the budget necessary to carry out the proposed measures amounts to 1.8 trillion yen a year, Tamura said, “In order to achieve this, the government should revise its stated policy of increasing the military budget by 4.8 trillion yen annually.”

Prime Minister Kishida in reply only said that he will work to lower the financial burden of tertiary education costs to support child-rearing households.

Tamura pointed out that the amount of scholarship loans provided by the independent administrative agency Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO) for students reached 9.5 trillion yen. In this regard, she cited the results of a survey by the Rofukukyo on loan-type scholarship recipients regarding the impact of repayment on their life planning. In the survey, 37.5% of respondents said that they may put off getting married due to the student debt burden and more than 30% said that they may feel financial anxiety when thinking about having children.

Tamura referred to U.S. President Biden’s decision to cancel up to 10,000 dollars (about 1.3 million yen) per student in federal student loans. She said that the Kishida government should consider relieving borrowers by such means as forgiving half of the amount of student loans.

Past related article
> JCP Miyamoto demands tuition-free education through university [February 2, 2023]