youth

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

College students demand remedy for unbearably expensive tuition fees

The All Japan Federation of Student Unions (Zengakuren) on July 7 made representations to Dietmembers calling for a correction of the high cost of university tuition. About 120 college students coming from various parts of Japan described the realities of their living conditions, handing out to lawmakers a report that compiled the voices of about 5,000 students struggling to survive with the high tuitions.

At a rally held in the Diet building, Zengakuren President Nishikawa Osamu stated that the standard tuition for a national university freshman is more than 800,000 yen and the average tuition for a private university freshman is more than 1.3 million yen, more than most can afford. He said, "We ask the government to fulfill its responsibility to provide students with adequate conditions in which we can study without worries over money and be educated as bearers of the 21st century."

A Nihon University evening course student said that he wakes up at 4:30 a.m. to go to work, and comes home from school at 11.p.m., studying at night and sleeping only 2 to 3 hours. "Forced to work to cover my tuition, I wonder why I entered the university," he said.

Japanese Communist Party House of Representatives member Kokuta Keiji and House of Councilors member Inoue Satoshi talked with the students.

Inoue said, "Tuition-free higher education is the world trend. We will continue to make efforts to bring your voices to the Diet."

Calling for a reduction in tuition fees and an increase in the state budget for higher education, about 140 college students on July 8 marched in demonstration in Tokyo's Shibuya and Harajuku, popular districts for young people. They chanted, "University must be for everybody!"

At a rally held prior to the demonstration, participants reported on activities at their colleges for a decrease in tuition. A freshman at Tohoku Institute of Technology said that a signature campaign requesting lower tuitions that he launched in April has attracted students' support and that by July 6 he collected signatures from about 700 students, or one-forth of all students.
- Akahata, July 8 and 9, 2006