Japan Diet OKs aid for low-income households over higher education

May 10, 2019

Tokyo--The Diet, Japan's parliament, enacted on Friday a bill aiming at providing financial assistance to low-income households to ease the burden of expenses on higher education.

The bill, which centers on reducing tuition and entrance fees and expands the application of grant-type scholarships, will come into effect in April 2020.

It was approved by a majority vote chiefly by lawmakers of the ruling coalition at a plenary meeting of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet. The bill cleared the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, in mid-April.

The upper limit of the discount will be some 280,000 yen for entrance fees and some 540,000 yen for annual tuition fees for students at public universities. For private university students, up to some 260,000 yen will be cut from entrance fees and some 700,000 yen will be discounted from tuition fees.

On scholarships for public university students, up to some 350,000 yen will be granted for those attending schools from the homes of their parents and some 800,000 yen will be provided for those living in other locations.

At private universities, students commuting from their parents' homes will be granted scholarships of up to some 460,000 yen while those not living with their parents will receive some 910,000 yen.

The students covered by the program will be those from households exempt from residence tax, or with annual incomes of less than 2.7 million yen.

Households with incomes of some 2.7 million yen to less than 3.8 million yen will also be supported. The amount will be decided according to income levels within the range.

The program will cover students enrolled in universities and other higher educational institutions as of fiscal 2020, which starts in April next year.

Support will be terminated immediately if students drop out or are suspended from school.

Institutions where the number of students stands below 80 pct of capacity for three years in a row will be excluded from the list.

The cost of the program, estimated by the government at 760 billion yen per year, will be covered by revenue from the consumption tax hike from the current 8 pct to 10 pct in October. Jiji Press