September 8, 2023

Six young people, including college students, from Hyogo Prefecture made a representation to the Ministry of Education on September 7. They demanded that government assistance programs for university students be improved.

They are members of the Democratic Youth League of Japan (DYLJ) Hyogo chapter. Their calls include cuts in tuition fees, tuition-free education, improvement of the grant-type scholarship program, provision of more study-aboard financial support, and exemption of loan-based scholarship repayment.

After submitting the petition, they had a meeting with Japanese Communist Party Vice Chair Yamashita Yoshiki (Upper House), Kokuta Keiji (Lower House), and Miyamoto Takeshi (Lower House) at the House of Representatives members' office building.

Kamizono Takashi, who heads the DYLJ Hyogo chapter, told the JCP Dietmembers that many students in a survey the DYLJ local had conducted stated that their lives are hard due to the cost of living increase and high tuition fees. A third-year science student said, "The government always shifts the blame to fiscal matters while increasing the national budget year after year. Why doesn't it make efforts to ease the burden of tertiary education expenses?"

Yamashita said, "As shown in your survey, many students are forced to work part-time jobs in order to keep in school. This fact itself is unfair. The JCP will continue to work to change politics for the better so that everyone who wants to study can keep studying without money worries."