Tokyo: The Japanese government adopted on Friday its strategy to tackle the country’s low birthrate, featuring a program to enable households with three or more children to pay as little as zero yen in university tuition from fiscal 2025.

There will be no income limit for the program, under which the government will shoulder up to 540,000 yen in annual tuition fees at public universities and up to 700,000 yen at private universities. In addition, the government will also provide entrance fee assistance.

Also covering junior and technical colleges as well as vocational schools, the program is expected to benefit as many as 400,000 students, government officials said.

Currently, students from households with an annual income of less than 3.8 million yen are granted tuition fee cuts down to zero, or benefit-type scholarships. The government has already decided to expand this program from fiscal 2024, to cover households earning up to 6 million yen a year and rearing at least three children.

The newly adopted strategy also stipulates the launch of a program in autumn 2024 to allow students on master’s courses to pay tuition according to their income after graduation. Whether to cover undergraduates will be considered later.

The income ceiling for those eligible for reduced scholarship loan repayments will be raised from the current 3.25 million yen to 4 million yen.

Other measures include the expansion of child benefits and the establishment of a benefit system to enable nursery schools to admit children even if both parents do not work.

The government plans to fund the measures for the future of children by collecting more public medical insurance premiums in addition to tapping into existing fiscal resources and carrying out spending reform.

JIJI Press