An increasing number of students are struggling to pay education loans and more than 6,000 lawsuits were filed over the fallout in the 2013 academic year alone.
Kazuya Fujishima, 29, a graduate student at Hokkaido University, owes some ¥10 million in an interest-bearing loan he began to receive when attending a private university in Sapporo in 2005. He continued to rely on the fund as he went on to the national university for graduate studies.
Fujishima was raised by his mother, who could not afford to put him through school. With no parental allowance, he financed his living and school expenses with a loan of around ¥100,000 per month and several tens of thousands of yen from part-time jobs.