Japan to provide subsidies for private high school education

December 7, 2017

Tokyo- The Japanese government plans to provide subsidies to support private high school students from households with annual income of less than 5.9 million yen, stating in fiscal 2020, informed sources said Wednesday.

The plan is part of efforts by the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to promote human resource development.

In a policy package expected to be adopted on Friday, the government is likely to pledge to make private high school education effectively free of charge for certain households by the fiscal year starting in April 2020.

The government plans initially to set three different levels of support, depending on household income. Komeito, the coalition partner of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, seeks across-the-board support without setting income classifications.

Komeito pledged to realize free private high school education as one of its key campaign promises for the general election in October.

A government draft proposal calls for making private high school education effectively free of charge for students from households with annual income of less than 2.5 million yen that are exempt from residential tax payments.

Specifically, such households will be eligible for subsidies of up to some 400,000 yen, the average annual private high school tuition across the country.

The maximum amount of subsidies will be at 350,000 yen for households with income of between 2.5 million yen or more and 3.5 million yen and at 250,000 yen for those earning between 3.5 million yen or more and 5.9 million yen.

The subsidy program is estimated to cost some 37 billion yen.

The government plans to finance it by using policy expenditures without relying on additional revenues from the planned increase in the 8 pct consumption tax to 10 percent in October 2019. Jiji Press