Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, center, speaks at a meeting of the Children’s Future Strategy Council at the prime minister’s office on Oct. 2. (Koichi Ueda)

The government plans to make university tuition free to households with three or more children starting from fiscal 2025, with no income limit.

The aim is to make it easier for families to have more children by reducing the burden of educational expenses.

As part of unprecedented measures to tackle the declining birthrate, the government will incorporate the initiative into the package dubbed the Children’s Future Strategy Policy. It is expected to be decided at a Cabinet meeting by the end of this month.

The government plans to include not only university students, but also those in junior colleges and technical colleges.

It is also planning to cover enrollment fees. The specific criteria for counting children will be further finalized.

Currently, households with an annual income of less than 3.8 million yen ($25,910) are eligible for a support system that offers tuition reductions or exemptions, as well as scholarships.

In the spring, the government said, as a measure to combat declining birthrates, it would expand the system to include middle-income households with three or more children annually earning up to 6 million yen.

It announced that tuition will be reduced or exempted for those households from fiscal 2024.

This time, the government is going further by planning to offer free university or college tuition for households with three or more children, without any income restrictions, in principle. 

The draft also states that the “necessary revisions will be made regarding academic requirements.”

The government is considering excluding those who do not attend classes from the initiative.

In June, the government decided on the strategy policy for tackling the declining birthrate, which includes the expansion of child allowances.

Initially, the government planned to allocate roughly 3 trillion yen for the measure. But on May 31, just before the release of the policy draft, around 500 billion yen was added to the budget.

At that time, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he had decided to implement measures such as expanding support for higher education under his direction.

The details of the plan have not been disclosed until now.

The government plans to soon show how it will secure the 3.5 trillion yen needed for the initiative, but it will also require cuts to social security spending.

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