On August 27, DPJ Policy Research Committee Chair Mitsuru Sakurai commented on news that the LDP and New Komeito had come to a final agreement that income caps on the provision of de facto free tuition in high schools, to be implemented by the Abe administration from the next financial year, would be set with an annual household income threshold of 9.1 million yen per year. Sakurai said to reporters, “This is totally different from our philosophy. If we look at this from a global perspective, it is natural that parents bear almost no education costs, and this movement is a large step backwards in terms of global standards.”

With regard to the ruling parties’ stated intention of directing financial resources saved by the implementation of such income caps to low income households, Sakurai commented, “Certainly redistributing that money within the framework of the education budget to those on low incomes could be one possible way of doing things, but the question exists as to whether this is still the way to go when we look at the budget for culture and education as a whole. I believe that one could also have considered reducing the budget for other items and increasing the entire education budget. That is where [the government’s way of thinking] differs from ours.”　He stressed that the DPJ would rather have reduced the budget for public works projects and the like and increase the budget for investment in people. Sakurai pointed out that the forthcoming increase in consumption tax will further increase the burden borne by the Japanese people and stressed that reducing total household expenditure on education was an important issue. He said that the DPJ would continue to call for free tuition to be provided as before.