Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba responds to a question during a Lower House Budget Committee session on Feb. 17. (Takeshi Iwashita)

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba indicated that the government will change its draft budget for fiscal 2025 to secure support from opposition Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party).

“We want to consult with the ruling coalition parties to revise the budget proposal,” Ishiba told a Lower House Budget Committee session on Feb. 17.

He was responding to a question from Seiji Maehara, co-representative of Nippon Ishin, which has been calling for free high school education.

It was the first time for the prime minister to state in the Diet that the government is prepared to amend the budget bill.

Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party and junior coalition partner Komeito have been discussing education and other policies with Nippon Ishin to win its backing for the draft budget.

The LDP-Komeito coalition, which lost its majority in the Lower House election in October, needs support from an opposition party to pass any bill through the Diet chamber.

Specifically, Ishiba plans to lift an income restriction on government financial assistance to private and public high school students from fiscal 2025, which begins in April.

Currently, households earning less than 9.1 million yen ($60,000) a year are eligible for a maximum of 118,800 yen in annual assistance per student.

At the Budget Committee session, Ishiba said the government also plans to remove a 5.9 million yen income threshold for additional assistance to private high school students from fiscal 2026 and raise the maximum amount from the current 396,000 yen.

The prime minister added that the government will consider 457,000 yen, or the average private high school tuition, as a baseline proposal.

Nippon Ishin has been calling for raising the ceiling to 630,000 yen, the assistance provided in the party’s stronghold of Osaka Prefecture.

Maehara told the Budget Committee session that he appreciated Ishiba’s plans on assistance to private high school students “to a certain extent.”

In response to Maehara’s call for making school lunches free, Ishiba expressed a willingness to provide free lunches at elementary schools as early as fiscal 2026.

Ishiba plans to meet with Nippon Ishin leader and Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura possibly this week to strike an agreement on education and other policy issues.

Many government and ruling coalition officials said an agreement is needed with Nippon Ishin or other opposition parties by Feb. 21 to ensure Diet passage of the draft budget before the new fiscal year starts.

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