Japan Ruling Bloc, Ishin Broadly Agree on Free Education

   Tokyo, Feb. 19 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Liberal Democratic Party-led ruling bloc has broadly agreed with opposition Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party) over a proposal to make high school education free of tuition, an LDP executive said Wednesday.
   This marks progress toward the enactment of the fiscal 2025 budget within this fiscal year through March, which the government and the LDP-Komeito camp aim to achieve. An agreement on free education is one of the conditions Nippon Ishin has presented for supporting the budget.
   Nippon Ishin is also seeking concessions from the ruling parties on its proposal to reduce social insurance premiums, which the party regards as another condition. The three parties' policy leaders will discuss the issue Thursday.
   The ruling bloc hopes to reach a formal agreement on the key issues with Nippon Ishin by holding a meeting of the three parties' top leaders as early as this week if the policy heads reach an accord.
   In Wednesday's meeting of the policy leaders, the LDP told Nippon Ishin that the planned three-party agreement will stipulate that the cap on tuition aid to households with private high school students be raised from the current 396,000 yen to 457,000 yen, the national average for private school tuition.

(2025/02/19-23:05)

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