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We are keenly aware of the reality facing children nationwide who find it difficult to study within the conventional schooling framework. Some cannot even consider enrolling in college due to their families’ financial problems, while many students dropped out of university during the COVID-19 pandemic.

11 Comments

Junpei Sasakawa, an executive director of the Nippon Foundation, who is engaged in creating “third places” for troubled children outside home and school. Correspondence colleges and courses are popping up around Japan, offering students a chance to study from places outside the classroom.

© Asahi Shimbun

©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.

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Having a lot more scholarships, like other developed countries have, would be a much better option than sending the poor to special institutions.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

I used to be impressed with the number of 'scholarships' until I discovered it really meant loans. Always better to check the definition of things in Japan. The English word often means much less when used in Japan.

5 ( +8 / -3 )

"...I discovered it really meant loans."

I have explained what a real scholarship is to Japanese people on several occasions and they either didn't believe me or were flabbergasted. The concept of zero obligation to repay or compensate for money received seems to be an alien concept here.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

How about making juku more affordable or better yet actually teach in schools so that parents don't need to think of their child's education as a financial burden? I still don't understand why parents in Japan also need to partially pay for their child's university education? Is this due to the age of adulthood? An 18 year old should be able to qualify for a student loan on their own.

https://www.retirejapan.com/blog/dont-pay-your-childrens-university-fees-in-japan/

Also enough with these gimmicks and either make education accessible to everyone or don't create another exploitative system:

The government plans to make university tuition free to households with three or more children starting from fiscal 2025, with no income limit.

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15077602

How does this benefit single mothers who are likely caring for the majority of the children who are in poverty in Japan?

One in seven children live in poverty, most notably in single-mother families. This is the highest among OECD countries. Support groups report that 79 percent of mothers cut back on their own food to feed their children. 

https://www.arabnews.jp/en/features/article_114495/#:~:text=One%20in%20seven%20children%20live,than%20the%20nation%60s%20median.

@Moonraker

I was surprised by hearing 奨学金 meant something different as well.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

I was surprised by hearing 奨学金 meant something different as well.

I would argue that it is a mistranslation to call it a "scholarship" if the thing in question is a loan. Translation is about imparting the correct meaning to the reader, not about robotically substituting words listed, possibly incorrectly, in a dictionary.

As with the comments above, while the quote of the day is correct that more help would be welcome, it would be incorrect to assume that the man means there is no funding available for young people to study in Japan. Various schemes are most definitely available. In some countries, almost every young person goes into debt to study. This mean any young Japanese person claiming that fear of debt is keeping them out of college is only worth so much sympathy. In other countries where university fees are universally funded, people pay levels of consumption tax that would give Japanese people kittens. So again, only so much sympathy is due.

If, as seems the case, the loans are low interest and may be forgiven, then SDCA's link is correct in that it makes sense to get one even if you don't need it and invest the money you do have instead.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

@kohakuebisu

Agreed. The Japanese are extremely hesitant to take out any type of loan and it is both good and bad at the same time. Good because many here are financially healthier than many other countries, bad because not enough investments to help pump the economy for the future. They do not seem to understand that loans can be leveraged into investments if played right. Education for example is an investment because you will have to pay a high cost to receive higher education, but the end result is you will earn more which should theoretically pay it's self off and be a net positive in the future.

I think the reason behind those in Japan who do not have the luxury of having well-off parents decide to opt for work instead of higher education see that the difference in earnings is actually not substantial enough and they need the money now rather than later. Future earnings are going to be less if they take this route but it isn't exactly clear by how much. So they would rather not be in debt and kotsu kotsu ganbaru instead. A lot of this has to do with confidence in Japan's future in my opinion and I don't blame them.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Make university free. It's the ticket out of the lower class...but only if the lower class can afford it...which it can't

0 ( +4 / -4 )

The government should be responsible for offering education until students graduate from university.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

If by study is meant listening to some old geezer who's only half aware that there are other people in the room, droning on and on and on about something that not even he is interested in and that has no relevance in actual life, I should think anyone would find it difficult.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Make education free from 1st year until University graduation. The junior school years are only free on paper. The uniforms, the ridiculous overpriced schoolbacks, the books, he food, nothing is free. Offcourse children can no longer afford going to Universities since the Recession and the abrupt fall of the Yen.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

The Japanese version of traditional university education is on life support. In addition to the shrinking population, there is no really purpose in going to a traditional university unless one is going into a STEM field or searching for a licensed qualification. In addition, the quality of education is often spotty due in part to uninspired teaching methods (long, boring lectures anyone!) and too much emphasis on paperwork and other forms of bureaucracy. Trade schools are often a better option.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

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