A government panel has proposed making higher education more accessible for science and technology students hailing from families with annual incomes of ¥6 million ($46,000) or less by expanding the scope of subsidies currently available to low-income pupils.
The panel also called Tuesday for extending financial support to students from households with three or more children, a move a government source says Prime Minister Fumio Kishida intends to use to draw more public support ahead of this summer's Upper House election.
In a meeting of the panel on the future of education, Kishida and other members advocated the creation of a system to allow postgraduate students needing financial assistance to defer their tuition fees until their salary reaches a certain threshold.