Political parties have been busy floating ideas for reducing the financial burden of parents in the education of their children, including making parts or all of education free of charge. Some of the proposals may be intended to woo voters in the next general election, which must be held by the end of 2018. But in trying to address the issue, the unavoidable question will be how to secure the funds to pay for the cost of education. Education plays a crucial role in the healthy development of society by nurturing children. Greater efforts need to be made so that qualified children are not deprived of education opportunities for economic reasons. Still, the proposals by the parties should be closely examined to see if they address the problem of cost in a rational manner.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party calls for cutting parents' financial burden in pre-school and university education. The opposition Democratic Party calls for free pre-school and high school education and drastically reducing the burden of university education. Nippon Ishin no Kai is proposing a constitutional amendment to make all education through universities free of charge.
These proposals are made just as many households struggle with the heavy cost of education of children even as their disposable income does not steadily rise. According to a 2009 education ministry report, which calculated the average cost of educating a child from kindergarten through university, parents paid ¥8.4 million if the child attended public schools through high school and a national university, and ¥11.6 million if the child attended a private kindergarten and a private university. The cost includes paying for school lunches and education-related activities outside school.