Photo/Illutration University students hold a meeting to oppose tuition hikes in the Lower House members’ office building in Tokyo on Feb. 13. (Amane Shimazaki)

More than 100 university student activists held a rally to oppose tuition hikes at the Lower House members’ offices in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward on Feb. 13.

Students from the University of Tokyo, Osaka University, Chuo University, Musashino Art University and others called for budgetary measures to reverse the hikes and demanded that the central government expand scholarship programs.

University tuition fees have been raising around the country in recent years.

The student activists said the financial difficulties of universities are the reason behind the tuition hikes, and that without government support, universities will be pushed further into a corner.

They also argued that loan-type scholarships just create debt for students.

“I gave up on graduate school because I thought it would increase my debt,” one participant said.

Another said, “The more that needy students are forced to work part time, the less they are able to study, and the less they are able to meet the grade requirements for their scholarships, creating a vicious cycle.”

Diet members of five opposition parties, including the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Japanese Communist Party, attended the rally, as well as bureaucrats from the education ministry, the Finance Ministry, and the internal affairs ministry.

The students handed over a petition signed by students from more than 100 universities and graduate schools calling for an expansion of the education budget.

(This article was written by Amane Shimazaki and Kohei Kano.)

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