The government on Friday adopted a bill slashing or fully eliminating the cost of university tuition for families with three or more dependent children.
The bill for revising the law to support university studies will be submitted to the current session of parliament and take effect in April if enacted.
Eligible households are those with three or more dependent children attending universities, junior colleges, technical colleges or vocational schools.
The bill envisions annual tuition aid of up to ¥540,000 per student for public universities and ¥700,000 for private universities, as well as admission fee aid of ¥280,000 for public universities and ¥260,000 for private universities.
This would reduce out-of-pocket costs for public schools to zero in principle while heavily cutting expenses for private schools.
The current university tuition aid program for households with three or more dependent children only covers those with an annual income of up to ¥6 million ($39,500).
The bill calls for removing the income cap. As a result, the number of eligible students is seen rising significantly from the current figure of around 120,000.
The government included free university tuition for such families in its strategy for tackling the declining birthrate, adopted by the Cabinet in December 2023.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.