Free School Lunch Offered by 4.7 Pct of Japan Municipalities

July 27, 2018

Tokyo- School lunch was offered for free at public elementary and junior high schools in 82 cities, towns and villages, or 4.7 pct of all municipalities in Japan, in fiscal 2017, an education ministry survey showed Friday.

Sparsely populated municipalities tended to actively introduce free school lunch programs, the ministry said.

The survey was conducted on education boards of 1,740 municipalities across the country.

Of them, 76 offered school lunch for free at both elementary and junior high schools in the fiscal year that ended in March this year. Free lunch was available at only elementary schools in four municipalities and at only junior high schools in two towns.

Towns and villages with a population of less than 10,000 made up over 70 pct of the municipalities where free school lunch was available at both elementary and junior high schools, totaling 56. Seventy-one municipalities had a population of less than 30,000, accounting for more than 90 pct.

Of the remaining municipalities, 424 cities, wards, towns and villages partially subsidized school lunch expenses, including through a program to exempt households from paying the lunch fees for second and subsequent children.

Municipalities that sought full payment of lunch fees totaled 1,234, making up 70.9 pct of the total.

Some of the municipalities that made school lunch free of charge pointed out the difficulty in winning the understanding of local residents, citing the fact that not all households have children, according to the ministry.

On the other hand, some municipalities said free lunch programs were effective in reducing the financial burden on parents as well as teachers' workloads related to fee collection and the handling of overdue payment.

Also on Friday, a sampling survey by the ministry showed that 0.4 pct of lunch fees at elementary and junior high school across Japan were not paid in fiscal 2016, down 0.1 percentage point from the previous survey conducted in fiscal 2012. The unpaid amount is estimated to total 2.1 billion yen. Jiji Press