Japan Press Weekly

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2011 November 30 - December 6 [EDUCATION]

Grad students: please lower tuitions

A council of graduate students representing all universities and colleges in Japan on December 1 made representations to the ministries of education and finance and to all the political parties, requesting their assistance to help relieve the burden of high tuition fees and to improve scholarship programs.

The students’ representatives stated that some students have to pay more than 500,000 yen a year in tuition and they have to put in long hours at part-time jobs to pay the tuition, continue their studies, and make ends meet. Most graduate students obtain student loans and if they have accepted student loans since they were undergraduates, their total debt will reach 10 million yen by the time they graduate.

The president of the national council of graduate students said, “Many postgraduates have financial problems and concerns about their future,” and demanded that the government increase the budget for public universities and private institutes.

Miyamoto Takeshi, Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives, received the delegation in the JCP office in the Diet building. Compared to western European countries, Japan’s tuition fees are extremely high and the so-called scholarship program in Japan does not mean grants but loans, Miyamoto pointed out.

He said, “The use of tax revenues for education is not wasting the money on particular individuals. It is money wisely spent to enhance the country’s future.”