High school students are hard hit by recession under Koizumi government

Corporate restructuring and bankruptcies under the "Koizumi recession" are forcing many high school students to quit. An increasing number of students have difficulty paying school fees because of their parents' loss of jobs or business failures.

A Japan Senior High School Teachers Union survey shows that in Saitama Prefecture the number of public high school students who have applied for their tuitions to be reduced has doubled in the last five years.

On this, Saitama Prefecture's Educational Bureau said that in the past most of those students who apply for a reduction/exemption were from single-parent families, but recently the biggest reason for applying is that their parents have lost jobs or failed in their business.

Also in Akita Prefecture, an increasing number of students are exempted from or allowed to pay reduced amounts of tuition fees because their parents are unemployed or have experienced decreases in their wages. The number of such students has increased 40 percent in the last five years.

In expensive private junior high and high schools, many students are in arrears with school fees. The National Federation of Private School Teachers and Staffs Union said on November 7 that about 13 students per school or every 70th student haven't paid the fees for several months. The number of junior high school students who have quit school because of family inability to pay the fees has rapidly increased.

The union has found that the reasons for the nonpayment and withdrawal from school are as follows:

"One student's family business failed and the parents were divorced. The mother was always away from home peddling goods from town to town and the student tended to be absent from school for various reasons and finally quit."

"One student's grandfather owned a company when he/she entered the school, but it went bankrupt. His/her family income considerably decreased and the family was unable to afford the school fees."

"One student's father lost job and ran away from debt collectors, with his address unknown." (end)